


It's Not Living If It's Not With You

by JyrusQuash



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst and Humor, Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Fluff and Humor, Vampire Fights, honestly what is this?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-10-25 02:05:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17715980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JyrusQuash/pseuds/JyrusQuash
Summary: Something is changing in the lives of our favourite adventurers. Will it be for the better? Takes place after the movie. (Also Posted on FF.net under le same name; trying new things whoop whoop)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First time on here! Please be nice! Comments and criticism are most helpful!

"Terrance and Gloria Scott have been convicted of both illicit migration and human trafficking." The woman on the television said, presumably reading from a teleprompter, "Prosecution for the trial had released records dating back to the late 80's. These records included evidence of various tax evasions and counterfeit identification for over 50 women. The couple, both aged 42, have two daughters but because they are both under the ages of 16, their names will be withheld and kept private…"

"What a mess." Carmilla commented through a mouth full of popcorn. Laura and Carmilla were just casually watching the 7 o'clock news. The news story that was currently being reported on had been the headline for Toronto's news stations for a little over two weeks. A victim of human trafficking had managed to escape her captives and give precise evidence in tracking down the people behind her horrible circumstance. As a shock to everyone, but Carmilla, it ended up being an affluent couple from the famous "Bridle Path" community. The arrests of Terrance and Gloria Scott were made and Toronto news crews responded with full force.

"Those poor girls…" Carmilla just looked over her shoulder at Laura, shaking her head. Laura huffed indignantly as she crossed her arms over her chest. "What? That must totally suck! Having to find out your parents were top tier criminals and all."

"If you tell me that comment had nothing to do with your 'baby fever', I'll stop judging you." Carmilla answered simply. Ever since both women decided to start planning a family, Laura had been over "hyped" about the safety of literally every living child. Laura huffed again.

"What? I can't feel sorry for them? Heck, they could be 27 and I'd still feel horrible for them."

"Yeah, sure cupcake."

"Still…since we are on the topic of baby fever…"

"I said I wouldn't hate the idea." Carmilla states as she wraps her free arm around Laura's shoulders, "Let's just focus on the present."

"Well, presently, I want to have a discussion about that IVF clinic I was talking about." Laura promptly got up, much to Carmilla's disapproval, in search of the many pamphlets she had been collecting over the past two months. With a groan and a sassy eye-roll, Carmilla admitted defeat.

"You're killing me, creampuff."

 

-Two months later-

 

"Well I'm going to be the only one present because everyone else has Fridays off." Laura said into the phone, as she poured herself a cup of hot water from the office's kettle. She was making a nice cup of tea when she was interrupted by the Children's Aid Society inquiring about one of their cases – children – coming to her office for volunteer work. Apparently, two weeks prior, a young girl was found vandalizing the building that Laura shared with a variety of other small businesses. Because of the extraordinary circumstances, highlighted by the kid's defence attorney, the proper punishment for their first offence was to enlist them in community service, for the building's patrons.

Laura, being Laura, is in the office from 9:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. on Fridays even when no one has an actual obligation to be at work. The "perpetrator", as everyone had been calling the vandalizing kid, had already assisted the other offices and all that was left was 10 hours at Laura's.

"Yes, no, of course! She can totally do some of her hours now. I'm in until three so she'll have…" Laura looks to the clock on the wall but quickly realizes it is out of battery. She sighed and looked at the watch that LaF gave her for her birthday. Just to her luck, it was not digital. After an uncomfortable silence, due to Laura's horrible mental math, an answer was finally reached. "…about four and a half hours of her scheduled ten." The representative of the Children's Aid Society thanked her and told her that the vandal would be at the office shortly. "Great, thanks. I'll e-mail you when she arrives and again when she's done her hours for the day. Yes, perfect! Have a good day!" After hanging up the phone and preparing her tea, Laura quickly cleaned up her mess and went back to her work.

She sat in the office's board room surrounded by nothing except articles about the UN's latest scandal, her Doctor Who mug, a pad of paper, an incredible array of rainbow coloured pens and multiple DVDs. Laura was currently watching news reports from around the world, on the projector. She was working on an article that was to be submitted to CBC about a Canadian Diplomat assaulting someone at the Canadian Embassy in Cuba. It was as fun as it sounded but Laura couldn't focus on anything aside from the conversation, she and Carmilla had last night.

After nearly a year of subtly bringing it up in conversation, leaving pamphlets strewn across Carmilla's belongings to down right pleading with her, Laura had finally got Carmilla to cave. The vampire conceded to beginning the process of looking for prospective sperm donors. They were finally going to start having a family and Laura couldn't wait.

She would catch herself thinking about how much she loved spending time with her dad and doing fun things as a family of two. She couldn't wait to have that feeling but with a child of her very own. Carmilla seemed indifferent to the entire idea but Laura could see right through it. If Carmilla really hated the idea of having kids, she would have tried harder to never talk about it. Fortunately, Laura figured that seven years together must have been the perfect time to suggest starting a family because Carmilla said "yes".  
She actually said "You win, buttercup" but that's not the point.

Before Laura could actually begin to pay any attention to the video that she was supposed to be dissecting, she heard four loud knocks on the front door of the office. She paused her video and quickly went over to the front door. When she unlocked the door, she came face to face with a young girl just a few inches shorter than herself. She wore rectangular glasses, was dressed in a green oversized wool cardigan, a loose beige button-down, burgundy corduroy pants, black suede ankle boots and a loose grey beanie atop her shoulder-length blonde hair. Her eyes were a piercing kind of blue and they popped out well in contrast to her pale complexion. To Laura this kid looked nothing like a vandal.

"Hey!" Laura greeted. She stuck out her hand for a handshake and the girl just stared at her. "Um…I'm Laura. I work here, and stuff. Who might you be?"

"Cohen." The girl replied. After an awkward silence, the girl continued to speak. "Look, I know you know why it is that I'm here, so let's skip the small stuff." The smaller blonde walked passed Laura, into the office and waited. "You got some stuff for me to do?" Laura simply nodded and led the girl to their makeshift library.

The office was the entire floor of the building but it was still really cramped because of all the boxes that still needed to be sorted and unpacked. This was the case since Laura and her journalist team had just moved into this venue a few weeks ago. Subsequently, their "library" was just a few rows of empty shelves, surrounded by even more boxes. When she and Cohen reached the library, Laura turned on the light and smiled.

"If you could just start by opening the boxes labelled 'library' or 'archives' and placing the books in order starting from…" Laura quickly surveyed the room before going any further, "…Oh! From over there, by the window! Yes, that should be good." Cohen followed her gaze and nodded.

"Sure." she replied, without further prompting. The girl started doing what Laura instructed. Immediately satisfied that Cohen was not going to cause any trouble, Laura went back to work.

It was nearing 2:00 p.m. and Laura felt as though she deserved a lunch break. She was on her way to the office's "lobby" when Cohen reappeared.

"Hey," she began, "I think I'm done with the shelves." Laura smiled at her.

"Cool. I was just about to order something on Uber Eats. Since you're done, though, want to join me in getting lunch?" Laura asked, casually. Cohen raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"You really want a 'vandal' to join you for lunch?" Cohen asked. Laura just shrugged her soldiers and laughed.

"When you put it that way, I shouldn't leave you here on your own." Laura stepped over to the door and held it open for Cohen to follow her. "Come on; I'm starving!" Cohen just shook her head but followed this strange yet super nice woman.

Laura and Cohen ended up having lunch at an Indian restaurant, a few minutes away from the office. The two started off having awkward single-response conversation but once the food came, everything got a bit easier and more free-flowing.

"So where do you go to school?" Laura asked, stuffing her face with food. Cohen smiled but then frowned. "I'm sorry – did I overstep?" the smaller blonde shook her head and was quick to correct her.  


"Nah, don't worry. I'm sure you got a call from CAS, so you know that things are probably…" Cohen took a slow sip of her soda, "…not the best."

"Well, either way, I don't want to intrude."

"No," Cohen reassured, "It's fine. The Society's shrink encourages stuff like this. My sister, Levy, and I used to go to TMS, a private school North of the GTA. But after…what happened to our parents…we had to get pulled out and now we go to some random Public school." Cohen paused and she wore a confused expression. Laura laughed.

"You should probably remember what school you're going to."

"Meh, it's all the same."

"No arguments on my end," Laura said, taking a sip of her own drink. She was curious about the girls' parents but decided that it wasn't her business. Instead she decided to ask about the reason she was doing her community service hours. "So, tell me more about your 'vandal' reputation."

"It's not exactly 'my' reputation," Cohen explained, "but I feel like no one's going to believe the real story. So, I just said that I did it." Cohen stuffed her face with more food and Laura couldn't help but inquire a little bit further.

"You didn't do it?" Cohen paused and looked at Laura as if to say: 'really?'

"It doesn't matter," the smaller blonde said with a shake of her head, "it's over now."

"But like, you didn't have to do the community service then, if that were the case."

"I wouldn't…" Cohen said, sipping her drink, "but my sister would have." Laura nodded.

"So…tell me what went down." Laura said, leaning towards the girl, "I won't judge."

"Well," Cohen finished her food and sat back against her chair contentedly, "my sister has been some sort of 'rebelling wreck' after what happened. She's going through this random phase of staying out late and going to high school parties." Cohen sighed and looked out the window, not looking at Laura as she told the rest of her story, "One night, she said that we should sneak out to go to this one party and I decided that I should go to keep her in check. Unfortunately, the numbskull is horrible with directions and we gave up. We were on our way back to the housing unit, that CAS has us cooped up in, when we stumbled upon – what we now know is your building – and saw some dudes writing graffiti with spray paint." Cohen laughed, "I guess they were horrible delinquents because they saw us and immediately ran." Her giggling subsided and looked down at her hands in her lap. "And that's when it got complicated."

 

-two weeks prior-

 

"Oh, hey! Coco; let's graffiti!" Levy stated, thinking she was the most brilliant person. Cohen just stared at her fraternal twin with disgust.

"Dude, this whole 'badass' vibe doesn't suit you!" Cohen cried, trying to plead with the taller girl to stop being ridiculous. "Please, Lev, let's just go back to the shithole." The 'shithole' is what they had described their new living accommodations, provided by CAS. They were allowed to live in a supervised apartment with a personal support worker, who was basically 800 years old and wouldn't wake up – BUT STILL. Levy just rolled her eyes at her sister and smirked.

"Fine." Levy stated, "You go back and I'll be here," for emphasis Levy picked up a spray can, shook it and proceeded to draw a happy face on the side of the building. Before Levy or Cohen could figure out what to say next, a Toronto Police squad car pulled up and blared its sirens. Levy dropped the paint can and Cohen swivelled around to face the cop as he got out of his car.

"YOU," the policeman shouted, "STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!"

"COHEN, RUN!" Levy instructed as she ran in the other direction. Cohen quickly thought about how much trouble Levy would be in. Their CAS worker had scolded Levy since day one about her attitude and rebellious actions. The worker threatened to separate them if Levy had one more run in with trouble and Cohen couldn't imagine being separated from Levy. Not after what had happened last month. Instead of running and allowing the cop to track down both her and her sister, Cohen stepped forward. The cop slowed down in front of her. She guessed that it was still kind of dark because the officer didn't notice a second person.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" The cop asked. Cohen just shrugged and gestured to the wall.

"Doing a little…redecorating." Cohen answered, crossing her arms. The cop scoffed.

"Well, I'm sorry to end your little project, but you're gonna have to sit in the back of this car while I call your parents." Cohen laughed knowing that there weren't anymore parents that she could call. She chuckled a little causing the utmost confusion in the officer.

"Good luck with that."

 

-Present-

 

After hearing Cohen's summary of the night's events, Laura felt sympathy and a large amount of pride for this 14-year-old. She showed much more maturity than anyone Laura had ever met, even up until now. Laura felt like giving her a hug but just leaned in closer.

"Hey," she said and Cohen looked up from her lap, "for what it's worth, I think that was very noble and you are totally awesome for protecting your sister like that." Cohen smiled weakly.  


"It still sucks."

 

-One Month Later-

 

Carmilla, Mel, LaF and Kirsch were taking a stroll on a lovely evening. Laura and Perry were at some wine and painting event, someplace in the extreme hipster part of the city. They had just finished watching a movie at Yonge and Dundas and were on their way to Fran's, a cozy 24-hour diner. They could totally call an Uber, or something, but it was really lovely out and they wanted to enjoy the prospect of taking a walk without Carmilla suffering from mild burning in the sunlight. It was about 11 o'clock but there was still quite a bit of cars going by.

"That was such an awesome movie!" Kirsch exclaimed, mostly with his arms, "I would totally see it again! OH! Maybe in 3D!" LaF nodded in agreement while Carmilla and Mel just scoffed.

"I really liked the visual effects! It reminded me of all our times with the alchemy club, at Silas!" LaF added and Kirsch just nodded along enthusiastically.

"Are you kidding?" Mel asked, "I'd much rather have let Carmilla run metal chopsticks through a fire and use them to eat my eyes like sushi." LaF, Kirsch and Carmilla all stopped in their tracks to just let the comment sink in. After a moment of silence, the three shook their heads and continued to walk behind Mel.

"No offense, but that doesn't sound very appetizing." Carmilla stated and Mel sighed dramatically.

"Oh, stuff it, Cullen-Stein; humour me once in a while!" before anyone could make any further comments, they suddenly heard a loud shriek that sounded like it was coming from right around the corner. The four friends looked at one another and without any verbal cues, all of them immediately ran towards the sound of distress.

They quickly rounded the corner to see a young blonde girl being cornered by three bulky looking men. There were a variety of groceries strewn around them and Carmilla assumed that this kid was just hitting up the convenience store for something to ease their munchies. One of the bulky men had grabbed the girl's t-shirt by its collar.

"Are you gonna tell us what we want or not, punk?!" the guy yelled in the girl's face. The girl just kept squirming, trying to get the grip on her shirt to loosen.

"LET ME GO, GUSTAV!" she screeched. The one called 'Gustav' wound his free arm back, as If he was getting ready to punch her.

"HEY, UGLY!" Kirsch yelled, getting the attention of the men, "WHY DON'T YOU COME OVER HERE AND GET SOME?!" It sounded intimidating, to Kirsch, but not to everyone else. Mel just shook her head.

"We really need to work on your phrasing, Meat-Brain." Before anything else could happen, Gustav punched the girl, square in her jaw and dropped her to the floor. Without further prompting, Carmilla barred her fangs and lunged at all three of the men. They screamed but kept running. Kirsch and Mel joined the pursuit while LaF stayed back to comfort the girl. LaF had just knelt down, next to the girl, who was coughing profusely. They pulled out their phone and quickly dialed 911.

"H-hello?" LaF said into the phone, as the dispatch operator answered, "Yes, I'd like to report an assault on O'Keefe Lane! QUICK! They're a minor!"

 

-About an Hour Later-

 

The gang was outside of the girl's hospital room. She had suffered some minor injuries and was knocked out by some pain meds. The girl had no real identification on her aside from a student card, which was turned over to the police. The cops asked the four friends to stay with her until they could get a hold of someone who knows where this girl lives and who she was.

"I know we should feel good about this," LaF began, "but still…nothing feels…okay." They looked up at their friends, "I'm getting that bad feeling again." Kirsch looked up from reading a Cosmopolitan magazine.

"Do you want me to find some Pepto-Bismol?" he asked, concerned. LaF just shook their head.

"No, not that feeling. It's – It – It's kind of like when –!"

"When we went back to Styria to ghost hunt?" Mel said, filling in the blanks. LaF just nodded  
their head solemnly.

"Yup." They agreed, "That's the feeling." Suddenly, the doctor came back into view. Carmilla stood and walked towards them.

"Any news?" She asked, concerned. The doctor just shook her head.

"Unfortunately, I still can't give much more information because none of you are her family." The doctor said, placing a consoling hand on Carmilla's wrist. "The police have identified her though, and I spoke to their guardian on the phone. They are on the way, if you want to sit tight." Carmilla opened her mouth to say something, but then peered over the doctor's shoulder to see Laura and Perry come through the doors. The doctor repeated themselves and Carmilla apologized.

"Yes, sorry, I-we'll stay until the family arrives." The doctor nodded and went into the girl's room to check on her status. Soon after, Laura wrapped her arms around Carmilla and placed a kiss on her cheek.

"When LaF called us, and said you guys were on route to the hospital, I-I didn't know what to think!" The blonde said, worriedly. Carmilla smiled.

"Don't worry, everyone's fine." She kissed Laura on the forehead, "Even the girl that we…tried to rescue." Carmilla said solemnly and Laura placed a hand on her partner's cheek.

"Hey, you did save her." The blonde reassured, "Even though she has some injuries, she's alive. And safe." Another kiss was placed on Carmilla's face and the vampire couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah." She sighed. The doctor emerged from the room and addressed Mel, LaF, Carmilla and Kirsch.

"She would like to talk to you; all of you." The doctor said with a smile, before leaving the group alone. Without further hesitation, the group headed into the room.

The young girl was sitting up straight in the bed looking perfectly fine, as if she hadn't just been beat down by a group of weird men on a Tuesday evening. It was here, in the light, that the group could actually see her features properly. She had long dirty blonde hair that fell over her left shoulder, piercing blue eyes and a slightly sun-kissed complexion. She had the brightest smile as the group entered the room.

"Hey!" the girl said excitedly. She tried to scoot up to the foot of the bed but immediately winced. LaF and Carmilla rushed to her side.

"Maybe you shouldn't move so much." LaF suggested, "Your head still looks way too bruised. Are you concussed?" the girl shook her head and winced again. LaF chuckled, "Yeah, I'll take that as a 'maybe'."

"Well, better this than…whatever else could have happened." The girl mumbled. She looked around the room and smiled a genuine smile at her heroes. "Thanks for…not letting me get beat to death. You didn't have to." Mel, Carmilla, Kirsch and LaF all chuckled.

"Yeah well," Mel began, "it's been kind of our thing, lately." Before the girl could comment, Perry jumped in.

"Not that we regularly make a habit of fighting complete and utter strangers in the middle of the night, on weekdays!" Everyone just stared at the woman with their eyebrows furrowed.

"Seriously?" LaF asked their best friend, "After literally everything?"

"And yeah, we kind of had to." Carmilla added, changing the subject. "We weren't gonna let some screaming kid fend for themselves."

"Well thanks, Justice League." The girl joked, causing everyone to laugh a little, "I'll be sure to speak highly of you." Before anything else could be said, the doctor came in followed by a taller figure. They were dressed in black, with a permanent scowl on their face. Immediately the room's atmosphere had changed and it was most noticeable on the girl's face.

"Levy…" the tall figure began.

"Gina." The girl addressed. Before 'Gina' could say anything, another person burst through between the doctor and the door frame. It was another blonde girl with shorter, messier, hair and glasses. She immediately rushed to the girl's bedside excitedly.

"LEVY!"

"COHEN!" the two girls hugged and Laura stepped closer to the two of them.

"Cohen?" she asked and the shorter girl turned around.

"Laura?"

"Kirsch!" Everyone turned towards the tall man and he just shrugged. "What? I watched a Shrek marathon the other day. Can't miss an opportunity." Laura shook her head and addressed Cohen again.

"What – what are you doing here?"

"This is my sister; Levy."

"You know them, Cupcake?" Carmilla asked, pretty baffled by the coincidence. Laura shrugged.

"Well," Laura pointed to the girl with shorter hair and glasses, "I know Cohen. She did some volunteering for my office because of spray-painting the side of the building." Both Laura and Cohen looked towards Levy, knowingly, as the girl just slumped against her pillow. "Anyway, she's finished her hours so I hadn't seen her since last week."

"So…" Cohen began, "What are you doing here?"

"These guys, who saved your sister, are my friends." Laura placed a hand on the shorter blonde's shoulder as she gestured around the room. "This is my partner, Carmilla, and our friends; Kirsch, LaFontaine, Perry and Mel." Cohen smiled at everyone.

"I'm…I'm just so happy. Thanks for sticking up for Levy." She hugged Laura and Carmilla making them blush. Gina coughed obnoxiously, getting everyone's attention.

"I hate to break up this festival of love and peace, but I need to speak with miss Levy about –!" Gina was suddenly cut off by Cohen.

"NO, Gina! We don't want to hear it!"

"Regardless of whether or not you want to hear it, I have to talk about your father's old 'friends' trying to attack and kidnap your sister!" Gina said sternly, "You and your sister are in grave danger! The CAS needs to relocate you both." Gina sighed and looked almost as if she was going to regret how forceful her tone was. "Separately."

"NO!" Levy and Cohen screeched, collectively. Cohen ran to her sister, and snuggled up beside her.

"I'm NOT going to let you take her away from me!" Levy cried, wrapping her arms around her smaller counterpart. Gina sighed.

"Would you two stop this?!" Gina said, exasperatedly, "I don't want to have to do this, but your information in CAS is apparently being leaked. Your parents' enemies are honing in on the source and until we figure out how they are doing that, we've got to get you kids into better hiding."

"But I'll never see her again," Cohen sobbed into her sister's shoulder, "I-I-I can't – I won't – I can't lose her too!" the twins began to cry together. The other adults in the room couldn't help but just watch as these two kids had their lives being torn in half.

"The system isn't safe enough for the both of you." Gina said, running her hands down the side of her slacks, "It wouldn't be worth it if you both showed up on the morning news, dead." The twins continued to cry, pretty much ignoring whatever Gina was reasoning. Probably due to the heartbreak unfolding in front of her, mixed with profound feelings of protecting Cohen and Levy, Laura spoke up.

"What if they weren't in the system?" Laura asked, as everyone turned to look at her.

"What do you mean?" Gina asked for clarification.

"Well…if the information that is being leaked is tied to everything that you guys are doing…maybe they can just go under the radar." Gina pondered the thought.

"The only thing left is foster homes, but those are publicly listed under our connections and for security reasons."

"What if…" Laura closed her eyes, looking like she almost regretted her big mouth, "they didn't go to a registered foster home? What if they went under the radar into something like…like witness protection? But not actually witness protection." Carmilla chose now to intervene.

"Laura…" Carmilla started, "what are you suggesting?" Laura's eyes pleaded with Carmilla and the vampire shook her head. "Laura, no." Laura took one look at Cohen and Levy huddled together and completely ignored her vampire lover.

"They can stay with us."

"What?!" Mel, Perry, LaF, Kirsch and Carmilla collectively asked, shocked. Levy and Cohen sat up, still kind of sobbing, but curious as to what Gina would say.

"That's…probably not good for liability purposes." Gina said.

"But they wouldn't have to be in a system." Laura argued, "Just leave them with us; pretend they went out of province instead of actually sending them out of province!" Gina shook her head and so did Carmilla. "Don't separate them."

"I'd have to run it by my supervisor but that honestly doesn't sound like the worst idea." Gina shrugged her shoulders. "It's all we've got at this point." Gina took out her phone and went outside. LaF, Perry, Mel and Kirsch decided to exit the room and let Laura and Carmilla sort out their…plans.

"Come on," Perry said, leading the way, "I saw a vending machine…somewhere!"

"Cool!" Mel and Kirsch said, tugging LaF along with them. Once the door was closed Carmilla lost it.  
"Are you out of your mind?!" Carmilla asked her partner, "We can't just randomly adopt kids out of the blue like this?! What happened to 'we'll do everything together, Carm'?!"

"I-I know, I'm sorry!" Laura said, sitting on the edge of the hospital bed. "I…I don't know." She looked over at Levy and Cohen. "I just don't want them to get separated." Carmilla sighed and placed her hands over both of Laura's.

"I know you just want to help, but this isn't our fight."

"Yeah, Laura…" Cohen said, interrupted, hesitantly, "we appreciate it…but we don't want to –!"

"We don't want to ruin anything else." Levy said, cutting off her sister. Levy looked up at Carmilla, completely by accident and the vampire felt something along the lines of sympathy. She vaguely remembered when she thought that Mattie was gone forever and knew that Levy and Cohen would feel something like that. Carmilla sighed heavily. Vampires aren't supposed to feel sympathy but they aren't supposed to fall madly in love with humans either. Carmilla pulled Laura up, to stand. Laura was a little confused.

"Let's talk over here for a sec." the raven-haired vampire gently tugged Laura along with her. Once they were by the door, Carmilla looked Laura in her eyes. "Okay. Tell me exactly what you think is going to happen if Tall, Dark and Righteous decides to give Thing One and Thing Two to us." Laura quickly composed herself and prepared to outline her thought process.

"I just…Cohen's a sweet kid and I'd hate for them to be separated. If anything, they can just be safe with us until…whatever it is with their parents blows over. It's, obviously, putting them in danger." Laura gestured over her shoulder to where Levy was lying down. "Maybe being surrounded by a few paranormal nutjobs, a weapons enthusiast, a walking brick wall and a few immortal beings isn't such a bad idea for their safety. Besides, they're 14. They'll be old enough to go to school or just buzz off at that point. I just don't want them to be a part." After hearing her piece, Carmilla sighed and ran a pale hand through her raven-coloured waves. 

Nothing about this was a good idea. 

Literally none of it.

But it was Laura’s idea.

Laura, somehow, always had a habit of making everything work.

"I can't believe I'm doing this…" Carmilla sighed, "Hey, Twerps," Carmilla addressed them, much to Laura's disapproval. Levy and Cohen both looked up, "anyone have a problem doing chores?" the two of them looked at one another and turned back to face Carmilla, shaking their heads. "Okay, sold."

Carmilla swiftly turned around to open the door. She walked out into the hallway and was now face to face with Gina. The CAS worker had just put away her phone.

"So, what's the deal?" the vampire asked. Gina cleared her throat and took a step back.

"You don't even know what you're getting yourselves into." The worker said rather ominously. Laura and Carmilla just looked at one another.

"What do you mean?" Laura questioned.

"Do you have any idea who those kids are?" Everyone looked around the room and just shook their heads. Gina turned to face Kirsch and Mel, "You do local news, don't you?" they nodded, "What's been circulating the last few months?"

"The story of...the firefighter that got high and climbed the mast of a yacht, at the waterfront?" Kirsch responded.

"No, Burrito for Brains," Mel replied, punching her colleague in his shoulder, "I think she's talking about the Scott case." Gina just nodded.

"What do you know about Terrance and Gloria Scott?" Gina quizzed. Perry began to speak up.

"Well…they've been smuggling young girls over the border to join the sex-trade. Apparently, they were a very rich business power couple on Bay Street. They were convicted exactly three months ago. I don't know anything else –!"

"Scott." LaF said, cutting off Perry. They then turned to Gina, "Can I see Levy's student card?" Gina laughed and tossed the card at LaF. The scientist gulped as they read the card aloud. "Student ID at Marshall Thompson Secondary School; Number 100893422…Levy Scott…" LaF then looked up at their friends.

"And the reason we have issues is that those men who were following Levy tonight," Gina stated, looking at Laura, "were Terrance and Gloria's business deals gone wrong. They will stop at nothing to get those girls killed. Are you still considering taking them in?" Gina questioned. Carmilla just looked at Laura, already knowing the answer. Laura wasn't 100 percent sure, but when has that ever stopped her before? This was what she was used to; this was her next mission.

"Absolutely." Laura said, getting all up in Gina's personal space. "I won't let you permanently separate these girls, after everything they've been through. They deserve to be kept safe and kept together." Carmilla chuckled as the madness unfolded.

"That's my Cupcake."

"Well," Gina began, "the Children's Aid Society, because of all the other stuff that we have to deal with, are willing to let the Scott twins cohabit with you and your partner." Laura smiled, "BUT you do have to pass the home inspection. I'll set up an inspection date for Friday; Call me at this number tomorrow." Gina ordered, handing a card to Laura. "Until then," Gina said, going into the room where the girls were. After a moment of silence, the group heard some feet shuffling and soon, Gina reappeared with Cohen. "Cohen will be staying at this address" Gina said, handing a card over to Carmilla. "while Levy stays in the hospital. I've contacted Toronto police, and they'll be guarding this floor." As Gina turned to leave, Cohen turned around and ran straight for Laura, hugging her tightly around her midsection.

"Thank you." The young girl said before unlatching herself from the journalist and following Gina to the elevator. Once Gina and Cohen were officially gone, there was a collective sigh of relief from everyone except Perry.

"Did you not just hear her?!" Perry said, in frantic Perry-likeness, "These girls are targeted by a few, if not, hundreds of their parents' scorned 'business trades'!"

"We have nothing to worry about," Laura said wrapping an arm around Carmilla, "I have a successful small business and Carmilla is studying while working for the Art Gallery; we'll be golden!"

"Not so fast, Angelina Jolie," Mel stated, getting everyone's attention, "you seem to be forgetting some important facts, about your life."

"Like what?" Laura asked. Carmilla placed a hand on her shoulder and decided to fill in the blanks for her partner.

“Yeah, we'll be totally fine…except for the fact that we have access to over a dozen weapons, tons of supernatural equipment, all our history is documented online AND our apartment is full of blood because I'm a vampire." Laura balled her fists and sighed; she had completely forgotten about things in her life that could, potentially, be a child safety hazard and ruin their chances at having Cohen and Levy live at their home.

"Oh crap."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beloved Gina comes over to inspect the Hollis-Karnstein abode. Fluff galore...ish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felt it a little unfair to flaunt the fact that I have 5 chapters just sitting here, so I'll give y'all some more! Criticism is just as praised as...well...praise! Be nice though! :)

_Previously…_

_“Did you not just hear her?!” Perry said, in frantic Perry-likeness, “These girls are targeted by a few, if not, hundreds of their parents’ scorned ‘business trades’!”_

_“We have nothing to worry about,” Laura said wrapping an arm around Carmilla, “I have a successful small business and Carmilla is studying while working for the Art Gallery; we’ll be golden!”_

_“Not so fast, Angelina Jolie,” Mel stated, getting everyone’s attention, “you seem to be forgetting some important facts, about your life.”_

_“Like what?” Laura asked. Carmilla placed a hand on her shoulder and decided to fill in the blanks for her partner._

_“Yeah, we’ll be totally fine…except for the fact that we have access to over a dozen weapons, tons of supernatural equipment, all our history is documented online AND our apartment is full of blood because I’m a vampire.” Laura balled her fists and sighed; she had completely forgotten about things in her life that could, potentially, be a child safety hazard and ruin their chances at having Cohen and Levy live at their home._

_“Oh crap.”_

-That Friday-

 

Laura had been cleaning and organizing non-stop since Thursday afternoon, much to Carmilla’s disapproval. The vampire admired her girlfriend for being so dedicated, driven and caring but she wished that Laura would just calm down.

“Okay,” Laura said, after dusting their fireplace and straightening every photo, “I think everything’s good.” She turned around to face Carmilla who was just lounging on the couch with an eyebrow raised. Carmilla smirked and pointed at the top of the television.

“What about the top of that?” Laura looked to where she was pointing and groaned.

“Maybe you should get it, since you noticed.” Laura retorted, tossing the feather duster at the vampire. Carmilla caught it and got up to stand next to her partner, shaking her head. Carmilla didn’t think a wound-up Laura would impress Gina in the slightest. After all, the vampire had secretly been researching some tips on the adoption process and knew that this meeting was going to be key. Realistically speaking, Gina had voiced how the likeliness of the twins staying with them would be high because of a lack of other avenues. Carmilla was confident; she just needed to get Laura to believe that too. Otherwise, the social workers would not be charmed. She gently placed the feather duster on the fireplace and put her hands on both of Laura’s shoulders.

“You’re being ridiculous, right now.” Carmilla said, in a soothing voice, “Maybe, instead of giving yourself high blood pressure by stressing over this inspection, you should relax.” Carmilla placed a reassuring, and much needed, kiss on Laura’s lips. Laura sighed and laid her head on Carmilla’s shoulder as the vampire placed her pale hands on Laura’s hips. Carmilla began to rock them both back and forth, kind of dancing in place. Laura’s shoulders slumped and gave in to her lover’s motions and when Carmilla felt Laura ease into her, she smirked. “I think that we should just take a seat, watch some lame TV, and patiently wait for –!”

And then three loud knocks on their door caused them to be brought back to reality.

“Well, fuck me I guess.” Carmilla groaned causing Laura to laugh.

“We can relax after the inspection!” Laura said, quickly running to the door. Carmilla just shook her head and braced herself for more of Laura’s antics.

Before opening the front door, Laura straightened out her blouse and took a deep breath. Once she felt that she was composed enough to carry on a conversation, she opened the door to reveal Gina and a smaller woman with a clipboard.

“Afternoon, Gina!” Laura greeted and stuck out her hand for a handshake. Gina eyed her before shaking Laura’s hand. Carm just offered a curt nod when the workers acknowledged her.

“Miss Hollis and Miss Karnstein.” Gina replied, placidly. “This is my colleague, Angela Moir. She is another CAS worker and will be writing everything down, during this walk-through.” The small woman, named Angela, gave a tiny wave and went back to looking at her clipboard.

“Wonderful,” Laura said with a smile, “thank you both for coming.”  
  
“Now, I’m not going to be playing any games.” Gina said, sternly, “I know that you both know this is an extremely expedited process, compared to the actual public adoption process in Ontario.” Carmilla and Laura looked at one another.

“We are definitely aware.” Carmilla said flatly, eyeballing Laura. Choosing to ignore the comment, the petite blonde continued to smile and nod.

“Yes, we understand.” Laura agreed.

“Very well.” Gina walked around the couple and began to proceed into the living room. As she walked through, she signalled for Angela to begin writing and taking notes. After just walking around the living room and the kitchen, Gina just started talking at Carmilla and Laura. “After discussing the issue with a judge, and multiple members of the Ministry of Child and Youth Services, they have agreed to push forward on this notion of the girls ‘going under the radar’.” Gina turned to face Carmilla, “Despite the fact that you are a vampire, everyone seemed to be okay with you and Miss Hollis looking after Cohen and Levy. That vampire rights advocate friend of yours placed quite a hefty amount of emphasis on that matter.” Gina pulled out a stool, from the island and sat on it, facing the couple. “The government also knows exactly what you two do for a living and how much you make, so I’m not going to ask any of those questions. What I am going to ask about is scheduling and accommodations.” Gina cleared her throat, “Let’s start with scheduling then.”

“Perfect!” Laura exclaimed. She loved planning and such. She pulled out her phone and searched for her notes. “Carmilla has classes online, for the most part, and works during the afternoons from noon to six on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. My schedule is Monday to Friday; the regular nine to five, but on Fridays, I have the choice of working from home since our official hours of operation are Monday to Thursday.” Laura paused a little, waiting for any objections from Gina. When there were none, she cleared her throat and kept going. “Since they will be going under the radar, I assume that they’ll be relocating schools to which I suggest any of the three schools that we are currently in the middle of. All institutions are accessible by public transit and just good old-fashioned walking. However, due to all this craziness, Carm has opted to change her schedule to nine until two so she can drop-off and pick-up the girls.” Laura chose now to nudge Carm, so that the vampire could at least pretend that this wasn’t entirely ridiculous.

“We read the files you sent us and we noticed that the kids are pretty involved in sports and choir and stuff like that. We decided that if the twerp – twins – decide that they want to do some extra-curriculars, I’m fine with doing pick-up and drop-off still. Just so long as they are safe.” Carmilla sighed, “I just want them safe and not being kidnapped.” The vampire said honestly. Although this was very much Laura’s plan, she didn’t want the kids to get hurt. Gina looked to her colleague and they both began to whisper back and forth. Carmilla looked at Laura and the blonde just interlocked their hands together. The raven-haired vampire could feel Laura’s accelerated pulse through her fingertips and squeezed Laura’s hand for reassurance.

“Where will they be sleeping?” Angela asked in a much lighter tone than Gina’s.

Laura smiled and led them towards, what used to be, their shared office space. “Carm and I used to use this for a shared office, but we decided to just leave most of our stuff at work and use our laptops at home.” It was a decent sized room, perfect for a bunk bed or two twin sized beds. Laura implored the help of Kirsch and Danny to rearrange the desks that were originally in here in order to give the girls a shared workspace. There was now just a bright yellow room with a bookshelf, a long desk with two office chairs and a big window. The walls had some basic paintings on them and there was also a closet with an installed divider. Carmilla gestured to the wall plugs.

“There’s two wall plugs on each side and we bought one of those extension blocks so they can enjoy their electronics.” The vampire explained. “We ordered the beds from IKEA; they should be coming in at some time today.” Angela smiled and wrote some more things down in her notes.

“You’ve put some thought into the amenities,” Angela praised, “very nice, on such short notice!” the small woman then turned towards Gina. There was another round of questions, and then came the issue of custody.

“The girls are going M.I.A., so we need to talk about name changes. You two are not married, so it’s not that easy. The girls are fine with whatever; Cohen just shrugged when I asked and Levy said…” Gina took out her own notes and smiled, “‘I’d change my name right now if it means I don’t share a name with those mongrels!’” Carmilla chuckled in response.

“Glad to know kids are still using the word ‘mongrels.’” The vampire said.

“She actually used a different word, but because I have to write everything down, I changed it.” Gina answered. “But yes, any ideas as to what name they’ll be taking?” Gina questioned. Laura furrowed her brows in confusion; she hadn’t thought about that part. “Let me put it this way,” Gina offered, “Who wants to be their sole guardian?” Carmilla and Laura looked at one another.

“Maybe we can just have each of them take a different name.” Carmilla brainstormed. “They’re fraternal after all. One could be Karnstein and the other, Hollis.” Laura beamed and squeezed the vampire’s shoulders.

“Good idea Carm! That does make sense for the whole ‘hide them in plain sight’ thing!” Laura added. Angela nodded and wrote this down.

“Perfect!” Angela said, triumphantly.

“We ask that you both, once this is all finalized, take them to get new passports and health-care cards.” Gina instructed. “The government’s witness protection sector will dispose of their old identifications properly. Now that we have the preferred names, they can already begin providing the girls with new Social Insurance Numbers.” Laura nodded and made a note on her phone.

“Anything else?” Laura asked, anxiously.

“No, everything is fine for now. We will bring the papers when we bring the girls.” Angela answered before turning towards Gina. “I think the girls will be fine here.” Angela admitted to her colleague. “Cohen is already very taken with Miss Hollis.” Gina just rolled her eyes and turned to face Carmilla and Laura.

“Levy is still in recovery mode, but she will be released from the hospital at 5 o’clock, tomorrow.” Angela informed the couple, “She’ll be escorted here by Gina, shortly thereafter, and I’ll arrange for Cohen to be brought in around the same time so that they’ll be here together.”

“Excellent!” Laura exclaimed, “Can’t wait! Thank you so much, you guys.”

“No,” Gina chuckled ominously, “Thank you.” And with that, the workers were out of the apartment.

“Ugh,” Carmilla groaned, closing the door behind the workers, “What a creep.”

“She’s nothing that we aren’t used to, that’s for sure.” The blonde said, plopping down onto the little bench they had, by the door. Carmilla sat down, next to her, resting her head on Laura’s shoulder. After a few moments of silence, the gravity of the entire situation began to settle in Laura’s mind.

They have just been approved by a public adoption agency.

They went through an express version of adoption because of government-based circumstances.

They were adopting the 14-year-old daughters of convicted felons.

They were adopting.

They were basically, sort of, kind of government-approved parents.

They were basically parents.

Laura jolted upright, and turned to face her partner who looked as un-phased and collected as she usually was.

“OH. MY. GOD.” Laura exclaimed, in shock. “We just adopted two people!” Carmilla laughed and got up to wrap her arms around her crazy person. The vampire placed a kiss on her girlfriend’s cheek.

“And where exactly have you been this whole time, cutie?”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Laura said, running her hands through her hair. Carmilla couldn’t help but laugh at Laura’s extremely delayed panic attack over this matter.

“Of course, you’d freak out _after_ we ordered new furniture, essentially self-fumigated the apartment and signed everything.” The vampire said with a roll of her eyes. Laura proceeded to freak out, completely ignoring her girlfriend.

“Why did I do this? Are we even cut out for this?! What’s my dad going to say?!” Carmilla just laughed and put her hands-on Laura’s shoulders.

“Cupcake, your tantrums are as adorable as ever, and you know that I absolutely love how flustered you can be. But sweetie, it’s a little too late to back out now.” Carmilla soothed, slowly kneading the shorter woman’s shoulders. Laura exhaled slowly, trying to calm her own nerves. Carm was right; she couldn’t back out of this deal. “And hey; we did it. We kept the twerps from being separated and I think that’s a pretty good accomplishment for the Hollis book of records.” The vampire praised causing Laura to scoff. “Now why don’t you sit down, relax, and I’ll figure out what to do for dinner time.” Laura rolled her eyes, smiling from ear to ear. Carmilla was always very good at bringing her back down to Earth and she would always be thankful for that.

 

-The Next Day-

 

Levy was just packing up her things from the “shithole”, since her dispatch from the hospital. She had no idea where Cohen was and was just instructed by Gina to pack her things and get ready to be picked up. It was such a weird fucking day and this tween had had enough of the government just bouncing them around from place to place. Levy was not at all surprised that the Children’s Aid Society was compromised, allowing their information to be leaked. She knew that the government was weird; she heard her dad talk about how dumb they were.

She halted her packing and considered about her last thought. How could she, after all this time, still be thinking like her stupid father? In the heat of the moment, more likely due to her anger about her parents and not from her head injury, she threw her wallet across the room and fell to the floor, shaking. She wasn’t crying; she felt like she was out of tears.

She ran her hands through her dirty blonde hair, just tired and sick of all this nonsense. As much as she’s always hated how her mom had treated her, and how big of a douche-hole dad was, she missed the regular life she had. Her days began with a “Good morning, Amelia!” to their live-in caregiver, then they went to school. After school, Cohen would have ballet and Levy had either rugby or hockey. Once they finished, a limo would bring them home, they’d have dinner (sometimes with mom and dad) do homework, go to bed, then finally repeat! Life was pretty good for the Scott twins and it all came crashing down because their parents were as bad as Levy had originally thought.

How good could they have been if, for the better part of 14 years, they had stuffed their kids away with a caregiver? How good could they have been if they never went to Cohen’s ballet recitals? How good could they have possibly been if they never saw Levy play a game _once_?!

Levy just sighed and got back up to continue her packing. It was almost 7 o’clock and Gina was coming to get her and bring her someplace. Levy had asked the annoying woman if Cohen would also be coming and she replied “yes” which was the only reasoning that she needed to get her shit together. At this point, Cohen was all that Levy had left; she was her best friend. Despite how messed up Levy was, Cohen never gave up on her and that was truly admirable.

Levy Mauricia Scott; member of student council at the Toronto Montessori School, leader of the debate team, MVP junior hockey player…overall pretty stellar rep the last few years. It was all gone now. Levy sighed and continued to pack her things slowly when she heard the door to the apartment open followed by the lovely (so not lovely) sound of Gina’s voice. The blonde rolled her eyes the moment Gina’s shrill of annoyance graced her eardrums.

“Levy,” Gina bellowed, “are you ready?!” Levy exhaled in irritation but answered anyway.

“Yes!”

“Come down here, the car’s waiting!” Levy huffed and threw her purple duffle bag over her shoulder. Once that was secure, she quickly zipped up her suitcase and tugged it off the bed, letting the wheels hit the floor with a rather loud thud. “What the Hell was that?!” Gina asked, after the noise.

“My life crashing through the floorboards!” Levy replied.

“Stop being dramatic and just get down here!” Gina yelled, from the bottom of the stairs. “I have something for you!”

Reluctantly, Levy trudged out of the room with her suitcase in tow. She didn’t even bother to look around and at the place because she honestly hated every second of being here. Not wanting to be here any longer, and also curious about receiving something, the young blonde rushed out of her room and bounded down the stairs.

“Careful,” Gina said, taking her suitcase from her at the bottom of the stairs, “you’ll hurt yourself.” Levy shrugged and Gina just rolled her eyes. “Here.” Gina said, handing over an envelope to Levy.

“What’s this?” Levy said, even though she was already in the process of opening it.

“It’s your new SIN Card.” Gina explained, “You’ve got yourself a new last name and a new place to live, with Cohen.” Levy’s eyes widened. She didn’t believe that they had already approved the adoption.

“Are you serious?” Levy was in a weird state of confusion, anxiousness, relief and overall…yeah fuck it, she was nervous.

“Yes. When you and Cohen handed over your IDs, the Ministry wanted the adoption to be finalized so they could give you and Cohen last names, for the new documents.” Levy was too happy to be going somewhere with her sister. Perhaps she could get back on track to having a regular life. Finally getting the card out of the packaging, Levy read her new name and was puzzled.

“Levy Mauricia Karnstein?”

 

-Some Time Later in a Car-

 

“My new name is Cohen Adelia Hollis!” said the short-haired twin, doing some weird hand gesture and almost knocking her glasses off of her face.

“What?!” Levy exclaimed, reaching for her sister’s card, “We aren’t related?!”

“Huh? Whatchu talkin’ bow, Willis?” Cohen said in a weird voice.

“My last name’s Karnstein, not Hollis.”

“Aw, shit Boo.” Cohen said, looking at Levy’s card. “Wait…Angie?” Cohen asked the social worker.

“Yes?”

“Are…we living at two separate places?” the spectacled twin asked. The worker just chuckled and shook her head. 

“No, your adoptive family is just not married.” Angela explained, “To make it easier, they said to give you each one of their last names. It was also a better tactic to keep you both under the radar.” Levy nodded in agreement, satisfied with the reasoning while Cohen smiled from ear to ear.

“DUDE!” Cohen exclaimed, “I should like dye my hair and shit too!” Levy chuckled at her sister.

“What are we? Going undercover?”

“Yeah man! I feel like James Bond!” Levy rolled her eyes.

“You’d totally be more like Johnny English.” Levy said, looking out of her window. Angela and Gina continued to laugh at the conversation they were overhearing while Cohen just furrowed her brows in confusion.

“Who the fuck is Johnny English?”

 

-Laura & Carmilla’s Apartment-

 

“GAH – It’s almost 8 o’clock!” Laura said in frustration, “Levy’s supposed to be out of the hospital at 5 o’clock. I hope they’re okay.”

“Cupcake; Levy has to pack and stuff. I’m certain she didn’t anticipate getting relocated before she got cornered by thugs.” The vampire reasoned, sipping Hemo Soy from a wine glass nonchalantly. “And they wanted to bring Cohen here at the same time, so they probably got stuck in traffic, or something.” Laura sighed and plopped down on the sofa beside her girlfriend.

“You’re right.”  Laura said, shifting her body so that her head was resting on Carmilla’s lap. The vampire took a sip of her drink while gently running her free hand through Laura’s hair. “I’m just so nervous.”

The couple spent about two hours putting together the bunk bed in the girls’ room. The bed can be taken apart and used as two separate beds, but they decided to stack it just to make sure it could actually be used as a bunk bed. They were exhausted and had already eaten some food. They were going to wait for the girls but decided not force them into a “family dinner” on their first night. Carm even suggested that it would be better to give them their space for a bit; letting them come around on their own. For someone who wasn’t a complete fan of being thrown into parenthood, Carmilla was doing a magnificent job of making good decisions about the matter.

“I feel like you’re going to be the one with really good judgement calls for this stuff.” Laura said, snuggling against her girlfriend. Carmilla just scoffed.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Hollis.” Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and Carmilla swore that she had never seen Laura move so fast in her life. The small blonde smoothed out her blouse and her skirt and checked her hair. Carmilla just remained on her spot, continuing to watching Maury. Laura took a deep breath and opened the door to reveal the twins and their social workers, Gina and Angela. Laura smiled and ushered them inside.

“Anyone want a drink? Something to eat?” Laura asked them. The two workers shook their heads.

“No thank you, Miss Hollis.” Gina said.

“I’m quite alright.” Replied Angela, “We simply came here to drop of the girls and some more things for you and Miss Karnstein to sign.” Laura clapped her hands together.

“Perfect!” she exclaimed. “Come into the kitchen; you can sort out the papers there.” Angela and Gina nodded and proceeded to the kitchen. Laura was now left with Cohen and Levy. Levy just stared at her while Cohen lunged at her and pulled her into a hug.

“You’re so awesome, Laura!” Cohen said, and Laura felt her heart melt.

“You aren’t so bad yourself, Cohen.” Laura said, hugging the smaller girl. After hugging Cohen, Laura smiled at Levy. “Hey, look at you! You’re not in the hospital anymore!” Levy smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

“Yeah, but I kinda miss the bed.” After her comment, she yawned and rubbed her eye with her palm.

“Oh, then here – Carm?” Laura called out and soon the vampire was in view. “Can you help them with their stuff?” Carm nodded and slung both of their duffle bags over her shoulders and leisurely picked up both of their suitcases. Cohen and Levy just stared at this average-sized person who could casually just left 100 pounds of baggage like it was nothing.

“Someone eats their vegetables.” Cohen commented causing Laura to laugh. The twins followed Carmilla to their new space while Laura went into the kitchen to speak with Gina and Angela.

Cohen and Levy were very intrigued by the raven-haired woman in front of them. They had only heard about vampires because of the “vampire rights” movement going on. They had never seen one nor spoken to one until Carmilla. They were so curious but they didn’t exactly know how to start a conversation about that.

“Alright, Twerps,” Carmilla said, tossing all their shit on the ground, in the girls’ new room, “This is your new room.”

“SICK!” Cohen exclaimed, “A BUNK BED!” she looked over her shoulder at her sibling, “I call top bunk!” she declared running for the bed.

“HEY! NO FAIR!” before Levy could follow her sister, to stop her, Carmilla placed a hand on Levy’s shoulder.

“Calm down, Evel Knievel,” Carm warned, “We don’t want you having to go back into the hospital.” Levy frowned but suddenly felt her head spin a little. She hadn’t completely recovered from her head injury so she merely sighed and pointed a cautionary finger at her sister, who was already perched on the top bunk.

“You win this time, scumbag.” Levy snarled causing the other twin to laugh.

“Only scumbags sleep on the bottom bunk!” Cohen replied, sticking her tongue out. Carmilla scoffed; these two were going to be a riot.

The vampire let the girls continue to look around the room and get settled while she just watched from her position in the doorway. She was quietly observing them, watching them interact. They seemed like okay kids; not too much of trouble-makers. Carmilla asked Laura about the vandalism thing and the small blonde had explained everything to her. _How fitting that the Cupcake ends up connecting with someone just as noble and good-hearted_ , the vampire thought. Although she should be more concerned with taking in complete strangers, Carmilla couldn’t help but be worried about the very thing that kept her from getting excited about Laura wanting to start a family.

After all her years of being a tormented walking corpse, that ironically craved sustenance from the very thing that provides life, she had never once thought that she’d be in this position. Parenthood, biological or not, did not have any significant meaning to her. Her father, as so eloquently put many times prior, did not care until she was old enough to be traded as livestock. Her adoptive mother used her, continuously and mercilessly, as a pawn in her hell-bound chess game. She was worried that she’d end up being the cold step-mother to Laura’s nurturing mama bear. If Carmilla has learned anything from her 300+ years of existence is that she hated being rejected (subsequently, from the same backstory, she also developed some form of claustrophobia but that was a separate thing).

“Okay, twerps; time to lay down some ground rules.” Carmilla said, snapping herself out of her own internal fear-based trance. Levy was sitting on one of the office chairs, further from the door, and Cohen was on the top bunk, letting her head dangle off of it. Both were looking at Carmilla expectantly. “So, I don’t really have much of an issue with loud music or any type of shit like that. But what I do have a problem with is the fact that you two are almost as wanted as your parents. I hate to be _that_ person, but it would suck ass if you two turned up dead on our watch. So whatever type of schedule or curfew Laura comes up with, please respect it for now.” She then pointed the finger at Levy, who just raised an eyebrow at the vampire. “Laura told me about the graffiti story. Badass, I like it. But I don’t want you guys dead.” Levy just nodded in agreement and Cohen giggled, possibly due to the blood rush she was giving herself by pretending to be a bat. “Now then, any questions for me?” Carmilla watched as the taller one began to think, gently tapping her fingers against the desk.

“How long have you been a vampire?” Levy asked and Carmilla smiled. She had a feeling the buggers couldn’t resist.

“I’m 340 years old and was killed when I was 18. I’m sure you’ve got a calculator or something. Next question.”

“What was it like being lesbian in the 1600’s?” Cohen questioned, still hanging upside down. That question threw Carmilla for a loop. 

“It sucked ass.” Was Carmilla’s short reply, “Next.” Levy tapped her index finger against her chin.

“Is everything about vamps true?” the tall blonde inquired, “Like the whole no sunlight, no garlic, turns into a bat type deal?”

“More like minimal sunlight, no garlic and turns into a panther.”

“Cool!” Levy exclaimed. The vampire smirked.

“I know.”

“I like your choker,” Cohen complimented, finally sitting up, “can I borrow it?”

“No.”

“What?! Whyyyyyy?” Cohen whined.

“Fun fact; I don’t like to share.”

“Pssh. Lame.” With that, Cohen jumped off the bed and onto the floor with a thud.  Levy laughed and Carmilla just rolled her eyes.

“If you Poptarts are done enjoying the view, I’ll show you guys the rest of this place.” Carmilla offered, walking into the hallway. Levy and Cohen looked at one another, shrugged, and got up to follow the vampire.

While Carmilla was giving the twins a house tour, Laura was in the kitchen with Angela and Gina. The social workers were going over more information with Laura.

“Yesterday, after the inspection, I got a hold of the nearby schools and Greenwood Secondary replied the fastest.” Gina said, handing the information over to Laura. The blonde began to read through the school’s viewbook as Angela highlighted the important parts.

“They have a variety of varsity level sports teams, for Levy, and a very competitive arts reputation, for Cohen. Greenwood is also just 8 minutes away from here, by walking, and 4 minutes by bus.” Laura nodded at Angela, just relieved that she didn’t have to go scouting schools on her own.

“They are registered. All that’s left is for their parent to sign off on the forms.” Gina added.

“But they’re in – oh!” Laura had almost forgotten that she was the new ‘parent’. “Right. Yes, I’ll sign it when I drop them off, on Tuesday.”

“Doesn’t school start on a Monday?” Carmilla questioned, walking into the kitchen. Trailing behind her were the twins. Laura smiled because she thought that they looked calmer than before.

“There’s a long weekend.” Gina answered. Carmilla tried her hardest to think of a holiday.

“For what?” she asked.

“Something about a dead politician, some place.” Gina replied. Carmilla just shrugged; she could live with that.

“Sweet! No school Monday!” Cohen said, offering her sister a high five. Levy just stared at her.

“We haven’t even stepped foot in a school for like a week; it’s getting kind of boring.” The taller twin said, pulling out a stool and sitting across from Laura. Cohen scoffed.

“Pssh, right. I forgot you were Levy-lame-sauce.” The shorter blonde taunted. Levy rolled her eyes.

“You insult like a toddler.”

“And you’re still a Levy-lame-sauce!” Cohen dared to poke Levy in the eye and darted out of the kitchen.

“OW!” Levy exclaimed, clutching her right eye, “MORON!” in the distance, the adults heard a door slam and Levy quickly ran towards their bedroom. Angela chuckled and Gina smirked, looking at Carmilla and Laura.

“Congratulations,” Gina said, getting up from your seat, “They are _your_ nightmares now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed it! Let me know how it's going! You all are wonderful!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parenting is hard which, is exactly what our favourite couple just figured out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's quite a bit of flashbacks in this one so be warned and I hope you don't get a headache! It was needed as this fic will jump forward quite a bit to speed up where I want it to go!

It was a quiet afternoon in the Hollis-Karnstein apartment. Today, Laura was supposed to be working on an article for The National Post about a Canadian diplomat committing fraud alongside a U.S. Federal agent. An anonymous tip, from a Canadian politician, had gotten through to Laura’s sources and she was called about an interview with said politician. The interview was at a local restaurant but halfway through the interview, the politician decided to reschedule because they had received a call about a family emergency; something about their kid having to serve detention and what not. Laura hadn’t really been paying that much attention after the politician started rambling about their children because she started reflecting about her own time with the twins. It wasn’t horrible per say…it was just very awkward.

Cohen, having previously known Laura from the “vandalism mess”, warmed up to Laura and Carmilla relatively quickly. After their first day of school, the short-haired blonde went on non-stop about their first day at Greenwood. As hilarious as it was to hear about 10th grade shenanigans, Laura’s favourite memory, so far, had actually taken place during the second week of the twins starting school.

 

-Two Weeks Ago-

 

_Since it was one of the odd days that the vampire had to actually go into class, the twins requested to walk to and from school today. Currently, Carmilla was sitting on the couch reading books, searching for references to use in her dissertation. Laura was in the kitchen shuffling through her handwritten notes for an article that she was submitting in about three hours. She was a little upset that she hadn’t taken a proper writing class, with actual writing involved, because her handwriting was atrocious. As if to taunt her, some of Carm’s notes were also on the countertop and it was apparent that the vampire’s 1600’s writing style hadn’t changed. Laura shook her head and mumbled ‘show off’ in reference to Carmilla’s calligraphy. It was a quarter to four, when Laura noticed the time on the microwave, which was troubling for the journalist because Greenwood dismisses students at three, sharp._

_“Has Cohen or Levy texted you at all?” Laura asked, just loud enough for Carmilla to hear her from the other room. Laura had updated her phone plan, incredibly last minute, in order to include the twins. She thought they would use it responsibly but all they seemed to use it for was social media and to send one another stupid photos from the internet. Carmilla chuckled; the worrisome tone of her journalist was not missed._

_“Cupcake, they’re 14,” Carmilla said, without looking up from her book, “they’ll be fine.”_

_“But what if they get found by another ‘Gustav’?” Laura snapped. The more she thought about the men that assaulted Levy, the more she realized that they could still be on the loose. “Wait…what happened to them anyway? The police said that they were never found.” Carmilla cleared her throat, and turned a page in her book._

_“Don’t worry about it, Sherman.” Carmilla quipped, with a chuckle, as Laura rolled her eyes. The blonde admitted that she may have sounded, a tiny bit, like her paranoid father but she had her reasons!_

_“Low blow, Carm.” The journalist swiftly went back to her work muttering ‘stupid vampire’. Carmilla continued to laugh when they both heard a jingling of keys at their front door. Laura let out a sigh of relief at the sound and soon the house was filled with the sound of shoes being kicked off and bags being tossed on the ground._

_“Glad you could make it back. It is a treacherous journey, from a block away,” Carmilla greeted, “Cupcake, over yonder, was about to have an aneurism.” Laura shook her head, but found herself smile at how both girls giggled at the joke._

_“I have reasons!” Laura shot back half-heartedly, just as Cohen came bounding into the kitchen with a handful of consent forms for a variety of school activities and clubs. Carmilla had previously refused to sign anything of Cohen’s because the kid was technically listed as “Hollis”, so the small blonde thought it would be more appropriate for Laura to do it._

_Without missing a beat, Cohen tossed all of the forms onto the kitchen table, successfully covering all of Laura’s documents and laptop. Laura smiled and began to sift through the pile of consent forms._

_“Is this for every club, or what?” Laura asked, proud and nervous at the same time. She saw all the document titles; Greenwood Contemporary Dance Group, The Greenwood Vocal Ensemble, The Greenwood Secondary Orchestra, Greenwood Theatre Arts & The Greenwood Photography Club. The journalist found herself actively looking for the ‘fees’ section of each form. At this point, Laura felt Carmilla over her shoulder. The vampire whistled when she saw that each club, except for photography, had a sitting fee._

_“Well, I’ve always wanted to join a dance squad.” Cohen explained, “Ballet, according mother dearest, was the better choice and she had me en route towards dancing for the National Ballet of Canada.” Both of Carmilla and Laura’s eyebrows shot up hearing this new information. They had reviewed the file of the twins beforehand but nothing was indicated about Cohen’s apparent level of nation-wide talent. The small blonde appeared nonchalant about her level of talent. “The other clubs are just areas that I haven’t explored myself yet.”_

_“Had no idea you were a prima ballerina, Mary-Kate.” Carmilla said, opening the fridge to get some Hemo Soy._

_“Meh, it lost its fun.” Cohen said, shrugging her shoulders, “I’ve always wanted to do modern dance.” Laura smiled and grabbed a pen._

_“Well say no more, Miss Cohen. I’ll just look through these and sign them.” The older blonde realized that each activity’s enrolment fee should have also been a part of the discussion, but she couldn’t ignore the smile on Cohen’s sweet face. Laura was done for._

_“Oh. My. GOD! Thanks Laurie!” Cohen wrapped her arms securely around Laura’s shoulders and held on to her guardian for dear life. Laura just laughed and hugged her back._

_“Not that I’m complaining,” Laura said, “but why are you so excited about extracurriculars?” immediately, Cohen’s face drained itself of any excitement as the smaller blonde slowly released her grip on Laura and shrugged her shoulders._

_“Mom…well…” Cohen began, “she wasn’t a fan of my creativity. I was always forced to do the activities that she wanted for me. Like I told her I wanted to sing and she stuffed me in the church choir. THE CHURCH CHOIR.” Carmilla laughed at the girl’s dramatic emphasis of ‘Church Choir’. “When I told her that I wanted to do dance, she forced me into ballet. I mean I’m not complaining – they were tots fun – I just wished I did other things.”_

_“Well as long as your grades are fine, you can do whatever you set your mind to. OH! And also try your best and have fun.” Laura told her. Cohen’s excitement was radiating off of her and the term ‘beacon of light’ couldn’t possibly hold a candle to her in that moment. Carmilla merely shook her head, just observing the short blonde’s happiness. The moment seemed great until Laura noticed how Levy quietly disappeared into her room without saying a word._

-Present-

 

Laura frowned as she reflected on her experiences with Levy. After the three weeks, that the twins were living with her and Carm, there would be no point for a legitimate flashback considering most of her interactions with the taller twin consisted of one-worded responses and various nonchalant body gestures (including but not limited to: shrugging, nodding, shaking of the head and eye rolls).

Carmilla kept insisting that Laura shouldn’t take anything to heart because adoption wasn’t easy. The vampire would share stories about how she only got along with Mattie and Will, out of all the vampire “children” that their “mother” had rounded up. Over the centuries of henchman-like duties and servitude, Carmilla admitted that it took months for them to even say more than one word, unrelated to work, to anyone.

Regardless of the process, Laura just wanted to feel like she was helping and that she was making an actual difference. It was easy with Cohen because of her bubbly personality but Levy’s…Laura couldn’t even properly describe the girl as she almost never spoke to her. The blonde sighed and shut her laptop, noticing that Carmilla would be home with the girls any minute now.

She walked to her bedroom and placed the laptop on her bed when she heard the front door unlock. She expected Carmilla to shout “Cupcake, we’re home!” but much to her dismay there was shouting about other things.

“What’s your problem kid?!” Laura heard Carmilla ask. She then heard shoes being kicked off followed by aggressive stomping. “Kid I’m talking to you!” Laura scrambled over to the entrance of the apartment, genuinely worried about the yelling.

“Isn’t it obvious I don’t wanna talk?!” Levy’s voiced sounded aggravated and distressed as Laura finally made it to the foyer. The scene before her was rather uncomfortable as Carmilla and Levy stared intensely at one another, in a vicious stand-off. All the while, Cohen was whistling casually; kneeling on the ground, untying her burgundy Doc Martens. The shorter twin was so obviously trying to avoid whatever mess was going on right beside her. “Just leave me the hell alone!” was Levy’s final contribution to the fight as she trudged to her room and brushed passed Laura. Laura wanted to reach out and stop her but thought better of it and watched as the angry teen rounded the corner and slammed her door, causing some frames on the walls to shake.

Laura turned back to look at Carmilla who was steaming mad. With a loud grunt, Carmilla waked into their living room and collapsed onto the sofa. The blonde woman walked over to the sofa and sat near Carmilla’s head as the vampire lay face first on the comfy piece of furniture.

“What the hell was that about?” Laura asked, running her fingers through Carmilla’s dark tresses. With a sigh, Carmilla sat up and looked at her girlfriend.

“Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?”

 

-About Four Hours Ago-

 

_Carmilla was at a local coffee shop with Mel and Kirsch. She had just finished up teaching one of her tutorial classes, at the University of Toronto, and had some spare time before she went to pickup the girls. She absolutely hated reiterating the basics of Kantian Ethics to a bunch of whiny adolescents who still have no idea that there is, indeed, an actual difference between ethical and moral reasoning. She begged to teach an upper year class but the only ones available to her, with a schedule that worked well with the twins’ schedules, were second year courses._

_Shitty day or good day, Carmilla enjoyed the time that she got to spend doing absolutely nothing with Kirsch and Mel. Over the years Carmilla had developed a sort of preference towards these two. For Carmilla, Mel was just as sarcastic and bold as she was which presented a sort of “friendly rivalry” thing. As for Kirsch, he was just very entertaining; kind of like the animal sidekick in any given Disney film._

_“So how was proclaiming deontology to the masses, this afternoon, Santanico?” Mel asked, unwrapping her newly purchased “fresh” sandwich from its wrapper. Carmilla shrugged fiddling with her car keys._

_“It was fine. Not too many of the slackers showed up so it was quite nice. Turnout was a steady 21 kids.”_

_“shlhat’s shgood, hmmm?” Kirsch asked, mouth full of his own sandwich._

_“What are you? Three?” Mel asked, noticeably disgusted as she observed the tall human devour his pastrami on rye. “Chew your Goddamn food.” Before Kirsch could answer, Carmilla’s phone began to ring. The vampire took the device out of her pocket and looked at the Caller ID. It was Greenwood Secondary school._

This should be interesting, _she thought as she used her thumb to answer the call._

_“Carmilla Karnstein speaking,” the vampire said into the phone._

_“Hi, Miss Karnstein,” a new voice said back. “I’m Donna Christiansen, one of the guidance counsellors for Greenwood Secondary.” There was a pause before the woman continued to speak. “I’m just calling to inform you of a little…incident involving your daughter, Levy.” Carmilla rolled her eyes at the term ‘daughter’ but didn’t bother with any corrections because this seemed kind of serious._

_“What happened?” Carmilla inquired; the concern in her voice was hard to ignore. “Is Levy okay?” At the mention of Levy’s name, Mel and Kirsch leaned in closer, watching the way Carmilla’s face became focused and distant all at once. It was a face that they recognized as “serious” after all their years of meddling with the supernatural._

_“Oh, um, Miss Levy is just fine.” Donna soothed, “But she had gotten into a…pickle today.” Donna took a deep breath before going into further detail. “She was caught, with a group of seniors, smoking in a prohibited area while skipping her sixth period class.” Carmilla rolled her eyes as she heard this. “Because this is her first time, causing trouble, there will be no fines. The principal has decided to just suspend her, from school, until next Tuesday. We just need you to come in and sign the authorization of her leave, if you don’t mind.” Carmilla sighed. Laura was going to have a fit._

_“Yeah, I’m just a few minutes away. I’ll come over there now.” Carmilla said, slowly rising to her feet and taking her leather jacket off of the chair she was using._

_“Thank you and see you shortly, Miss Karnstein.” The call disconnected and the vampire shook her head._

_“Son of a bitch.”_

_“What’s going on?” asked Kirsch. Carmilla chuckled solemnly._

_“Turns out I have the troublesome child.”_

_…_

_“Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Karnstein.” Donna said, shaking Carmilla’s hand._

_“Not a problem. Thanks for informing me rather quickly.” The vampire responded. Donna smiled at Carmilla one more time before returning her attention to the teen who was standing beside her._

_“Now don’t forget that you have to type up an apology, to the principal, when you come back.” Donna’s cheerful smile was a stark contrast to the expression of absolute malice that was currently plastered onto Levy’s features. Carmilla smirked; Levy’s expressions could rival her own any day but she chose to withhold her pride due to the kid’s suspension. Levy rolled her eyes and plodded towards the door, disgruntled and furious. Carmilla said one last “Thanks” to Donna before following after the blonde._

_Once they were seated in the car, Carmilla started it and rolled the windows down._

_“We’re gonna wait here, for the next few minutes, until school’s over.” Carmilla informed the blonde girl, sitting in the passenger seat. Out of her peripheral, the raven-haired woman saw the vaguest shrug from Levy, taking it as a positive indicator. “Cool. Great.”_

_They sat in silence for about 4 minutes, listening to soft rock on the radio when Carmilla began to lose her sanity. She turned to Levy and decided to get some more information about the day’s events._

_“I didn’t know that you smoke.” Carmilla said, in hopes that her open-ended questions would be received well. Levy turned to her and shrugged her shoulder._

_“Just wanted to try it.” Levy said, reaching for the volume dial of the radio. She turned it up to a ridiculous volume and just sat back, watching some pigeons that were in the vacant parking spot right next to their car. Carmilla usually didn’t mind absurd music volumes but she found this girl’s behaviour quite rude and unnecessary. She briefly thought about apologizing to all of her friends for giving them the same cold treatment but quickly dismissed it. Carmilla reached out and turned the dial back down causing Levy to look at her with an expression that clearly demonstrated the likeness of ‘Dude, WTF?’_

_“Not to be_ that _person, but I’m just letting you know that you’re gonna have to organize yourself for when you tell Laura about all this.” Carmilla forewarned, gesturing to Levy, “She’s a bit of a neurotic when it comes to delinquency.” Levy groaned rather dramatically before saying:_

_“Why would she be super mad? It’s not like it matters; she’s not my mom or anything,” Levy reasoned, “it won’t affect her.” Carmilla groaned and rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that day._

_“You’re gonna play that card this early in the game, Tweedle Dee?” the vampire asked, prepping herself for a battle of wits. Without taking her eyes off of Levy, Carmilla straightened her posture and put on her best poker face. Both Levy and Carmilla were so invested in their impending argument that neither one of them noticed Cohen happily and excitedly making her way from the school to the car._

_The shorter blonde opened up the backseat door and slid right in, oblivious to the tension in the vehicle. She very merrily settled into the backseat, clutching her backpack to her chest while closing the door. As she put on her seatbelt, she greeted her twin and pseudo-mother._

_“Whaddup, banana bundle?!” Cohen greeted cheerfully. Regardless of the dead silence she received, Cohen felt it necessary to explain her entrance line. “Don’t mind me, I’m trying out nicknames for our little group-living situation without using the F-word…guys?” Cohen began to look between Carmilla and Levy, uncomfortably, and quickly learned that she was in for one of, if not the most, awkward car ride of her life._

-Present Again-

 

“So yeah, we got into the whole ‘stop trying to control me’ versus ‘I don’t have to be your mother to care about you’ thing and – GAH! I hate teens.” Carmilla whined, crossing her arms in a huff. Laura sighed and slumped beside her girlfriend just as confused and as helpless as her.

“Well, I’m not sure what to do. She’s…coping with this as best she can I guess?” the blonde reasoned and Carmilla looked at her like she had three heads.

“By skipping class and becoming an emo-rebel? Nuh-uh, I’ve gone down that alley tons of times and I don’t quite think it’s the best idea ever.” The vampire said. 

Unbeknownst to the couple, Cohen had been overhearing everything and just shook her head. This new Levy was not, in any way shape or form, her twin. Out of the both of them, throughout their life-spans, Cohen had always been considered the troublesome one. She had all the whacky ideas, all the weird hobbies and always said weird things. Levy was the smart one who was well-rounded. The taller blonde used to on rep teams, maintaining her status as a junior student council member and other prestigious things that Cohen thought were boring. Levy was supposed to be the one who was comforting and the one who always had a logical reaction to situations. But the pattern, as of late, has Levy rotating on an opposite axis; their parents ruined everything.

Cohen sighed and decided to take matters into her own hands. If Levy wasn’t going to listen to Carmilla or Laura because they weren’t “family”, then the right thing for the blonde to do would be using her familial leverage as an appropriate approach technique. She walked to her and Levy’s room with purpose, boldly opened the door and tossed her bag at her sister. The unsuspecting victim, of Cohen’s backpack, was immediately caught off guard by being assaulted with an aerial projectile.

“OW!” Levy shouted in response to having a backpack launched at her. “What the hell is your problem?!”

“My problem?! I wanna know what the hell _your problem_ is!” Cohen exclaimed, stepping right up to her sister. Levy was taller than her by about four inches and the height difference was having an impact on the intensity of Cohen’s death glare but nevertheless, drama was going to be served. “Please, Lev! Tell me why you’re doing this crap! You’re not like this! This isn’t you! Smoking? Skipping class?! Seriously?! We have two people who care about us and adopted us just so that we can be together and be safe!”

“It’s not their place to care!” was Levy’s heated response and Cohen just looked at her, in disbelief.

“So, who’s place is it then?!” Cohen asked, “Huh? Who, in your brilliant mind, is suitable of giving a shit about us?!” the shorter blonde just stared intently at her sibling before continuing. “If you say mom and dad, I will slap you.” Levy just shook her head.

“If I’m gonna do something, it’s not their business! They don’t have to care about me! They had a life before us, and they should stick to it! Yeah, they’re nice and shit, but when it comes down to me and doing what I want, they shouldn’t say shit!”

“WE’RE _FOURTEEN_ , YA DUMBASS!” Cohen yelled, inches away from her sister’s glare. “WE aren’t even old enough to care for _ourselves_ which is only further proven by your lovely performances this month!” Cohen let out a sarcastic chuckle, “Do you know what Carmilla was doing before she had to pick you up?” Cohen kept silent until she was certain her sister wouldn’t answer. It seemed as though she finally got Levy to listen, so she seized the moment and continued. “She was chilling with her friends. Caring about her own life, just as you said she should. I was overhearing her talking to Laura about today and she totally could have just said ‘oh, cool, I’ll just come when school’s done’. BUT SHE DIDN’T! Tell me, Levy, what would our parents have done, hm?” Levy just stared at her sister, finally letting the argument settle in. She already knew she was losing but kept her blank façade.

“…mom would’ve sent a servant to come get me and dad would’ve e-transferred money to the school so that we wouldn’t have a record.” Levy mumbled, barely audible.

“See? They don’t have to be our parents – HELL – they _shouldn’t_ be our parents. Just give them a chance, Levy. They’re giving us a chance. I feel like there’s more to your shitty stuff right now, so out with it!” Cohen paused her rant to just stare into her sister’s eyes for a moment; their bright blue eyes meeting intensely for the first time since they had moved in with Laura and Carmilla. The intensity wore Levy down a little and Cohen could see the slightest surrender in her sister’s expression. After releasing a breath, Cohen placed a gentle and calming hand on Levy’s shoulder. “I feel like you don’t even fully understand what’s going on with yourself, dude.” Levy just shook her head, keeping her tears at bay. She swiftly slapped Cohen’s hand off of her and went to lie down in her bed. Cohen just followed her and laid down beside her. “You ready to answer my question, ya big cry baby?”

“I just…” Levy started, carefully analyzing her thought process before she spoke. Her voice was shaking slightly and her fingers trembled. “I’m not sure how to feel. I miss mom and dad but they were horrible people. Not even because of the conviction or anything, they just didn’t care. I guess I’m just not used to this shit.” Levy sighed, wiping her tears. “I know I shouldn’t miss them, but I do. I wanted them to care for us; I wanted mom and dad to be there for us.” Cohen sighed and wrapped an arm around her sister, comforting her.

“Same, but they’d always pick you over me.” Cohen admitted, “They’d be like ‘our Levy is so smart’ or ‘our Levy is gonna be so successful’. But no matter how much they praised you, that’s all you were to them: a trophy. They didn’t care about what you did, as long as you were getting good grades. They never asked you how you felt.” Cohen let Levy’s head rest on her shoulder and they both just relished one another’s presence. “I’m not 100% sure that you’ll ever get that ‘dream’ relationship with these guys either, but it’s worth a try.” Cohen said as Levy released a shaky breath.

The twins just laid on the lower bunk, revelling in their admissions. This had been the first real conversation that the twins had had, revolving around their parents and it felt good to know how one another was feeling about all this. Cohen wanted to move on and Levy wished that her parents had been as concerned for her wellbeing as Laura and Carmilla were. Levy knew that she was being unreasonable and that she should be more in tune to how she handled her anger. Internally, she visualized her anger as being towards her parents; she didn’t intend for the argument, between her and Carmilla, to escalate.

Truth be told, Levy felt that she didn’t deserve for Carmilla and Laura to sacrifice their lives for them. When Levy said that ‘it was none of her concern’, what the blonde had meant was that they shouldn’t be concerned for her; she could take care of herself. Obviously, she was very much wrong. She sighed as she realized that she needed to reconcile with Laura and Carmilla about her behaviour.

“She hates me, doesn’t she?” the taller blonde asked in the smallest voice. Cohen’s face scrunched up in thought.

“I don’t think Laura could hate anything if she was paid to do it.”

“No,” Levy corrected, “Carmilla.”

“Oh.” Was Cohen’s reply, “Yeah…that one…good luck, friend.” The shorter blonde patted her sister on the head, got up, and began to pickup the debris from throwing her bag at Levy earlier. Levy watched as she rummaged around, picking up the debris. Levy was so thankful that after all the horrible things that occurred this year, she still had her sister to talk some sense into her.

“You’re the best pep-talker, dimwit.” Levy told her.

“At least I don’t suck at being a delinquent.” Cohen responded, laughing, “Seriously, cut it out – you suck; you keep getting caught.”

 

-Two Days Later-

 

It was now Friday. Cohen had gone off to school, Carmilla went to speak with one of her professors to ask about her dissertation, and Laura was just doing some grocery shopping. Tagging along with her was Levy, who didn’t have anything else going on because of her suspension. Since their totally dramatic Wednesday, Levy and Carmilla hadn’t spoken to one another. Laura came to the simple realization that Levy and Carmilla were, in a weird way, kind of the same. Both had parental issues, troubles with expectations and were snarky and sassy beyond belief.

Anyway, Laura also came to realize that Carmilla and Levy actually had somewhat of a relationship before their fight. Laura remembered how Levy would be watching some weird History Channel documentary, on any given day, and Carmilla would join to make fun of whatever the historians were trying to figure out. They had common ground and Laura was sad that the vampire and the girl weren’t speaking right now. As a solution to Levy’s funk, Laura decided that she should up her game and begin to develop some sort of relationship with her in case Levy and Carmilla fought again. This way, Levy could rely on her as well. 

This particular idea came to her, last night, when Laura was on the phone with her father. That was a conversation that should have happened at the beginning of this month, but she had completely forgotten about it.

 

-Last Night-

 

_Levy had taken her dinner to her room in another obvious attempt to avoid the vampire. Laura noticed how upset both Carm and Levy looked, and felt bad that they were fighting. After dinner, Cohen and Carmilla decided to watch ‘Match Game’ while Laura tried to get some of her new notes done. She was in the middle of writing another reference down when her cellphone rang. Laura checked the caller ID and her breath caught in her throat. She slowly slid her thumb across the screen to answer the call and hesitantly raised the phone to her ear._

_“Hey, dad,” she greeted nervously, “what’s up?”_

_“Hey, honey! Just checking in to make sure that you and Carm are still good to come up to Collingwood for Thanksgiving!” Sherman said cheerily. Laura just sat there, not really knowing how to tell him about the twins. She hadn’t even thought about texting her father – which was a horrible thing to do! She also managed let herself forget about Thanksgiving which was equally, if not more, unacceptable. “Hey, sweetheart, everything okay? I can hear you thinking from over here.”_

_“No – uh – I mean yes! Yeah! I’m okay…things are okay. I – I’m just wondering if…” Yep, she had no idea how to bring up this topic. “…if you had any spare mattresses, or something, for when we head up.”_

_“What for?” Sherman questioned, “Did you invite some of your friends?” When the blonde didn’t answer right away, her father let out a dramatic groan. “Laura I’ve only got one extra room up here.”_

_“No…that’ll be fine…”_

_“Laura…” Sherman inquired, “come on, what are you not telling me?” Laura decided to just go for it; no use in beating around the bush._

_“Carm and I…may have…adopted.” A moment of silence passed before Sherman clarified what she had meant by her statement._

_“Adopted what? A cat?”_

_“No.”_

_“Then what are you –!” Sherman cut himself off when he realized what she was talking about. God, he should’ve guessed; Carmilla called him last month to tell him that his daughter was becoming crazy about babies. “Laura.” He said, sternly._

_“Dad.”_

_“Laura.”_

_“Dad.”_

_“Laura…”_

_“…Dad?”_

_“YOU TWO NUMBNUTS BECAME PARENTS AND DIDN’T TELL ME?!” he screeched into the phone while Laura just cringed at his reaction. She really should have done this sooner. “Were ya just gonna show up at the cabin with a baby like ‘surprise!’?”_

_“It…they’re not a baby…and there’s two of them.” Laura cringed again as her father basically unleashed into full freak-out._

_“LAURA EILEEN HOLLIS –!”_

_“OKAY! Don’t middle name me! I’m sorry!” she said, cutting off her father. “I really am sorry dad. I meant to tell you, but I got so carried away with the documents, enrolling them into high school, paying for all of the activities and all my deadlines –!” it was Sherman’s turn to cut her off._

_“Okay, I get it – not really – but yeah, you would be busy with the, um, the kids and what not.” He felt incredibly odd, learning that his daughter had become a parent seemingly overnight. But he learned to take everything one day at a time, especially when it came to his Laura. His little, irrationally driven Laura. “So…” Sherman began, trying to get some more information, “wanna talk about all of it?”_

_“Yeah, thanks dad.” She said gratefully, “So, remember that couple, who was convicted of all those terrible things?” Laura smiled as she told him all about the twins from start to finish. She told him about Cohen’s noble act to protect her sister’s reputation (despite what transpired this week), Levy’s run-in with a gang and how Carm and their friends saved her. Laura even gushed about her relationship with Cohen and Sherman couldn’t help but smile about how comfortable his daughter sounded. The blonde began to tell him about Levy’s recent incident and how her and Carm weren’t talking and Sherman just laughed._

_“Welcome to parenthood, sweetie.” He said as he laughed, “It’s gonna happen. You skipped like all the other steps, but it doesn’t matter; teens are a different type of species and I firmly believe that.” Sherman’s chuckling subsided as he got serious. “If you feel completely helpless, that’s fine; it was bound to happen. And from what you told me, about what they went through, I would expect all of this. It’ll pass and even get better.”_

_“I just wish I knew what to do.” Laura whines, “I just want to be able to connect with her as well as I do with Cohen.”_

_“Keep at it, honey. All relationships are work. Remember how you and Carm were?” Laura’s silence was an obvious indication of her answer and Sherman laughed a little more. “See? Just relax and take it as it comes.” And here was another moment where Laura was extremely thankful for her father._

_“Thanks, dad.”_

_“No problem, honey.” Sherman said. They revelled in their daddy/daughter moment before he began stressing about the logistics of everything. “So…are all four of you coming up to the cabin or what?” Laura just laughed; of course, Sherman would stress out about this. “Is anyone vegetarian? Any allergies? Quit laughing, Laura! I need to know this!”_

-Present-

 

So now here they were, at the seasonal outdoor marketplace. Just Levy and Laura, strolling along looking for homemade goodies and fresh fruits and vegetables. They had a crap ton of meats at home so the natural thing to do would be to even out the ratios a little bit.

Laura and Levy walked to the market, since it was only 15 minutes away from the apartment. There wasn’t much to talk about except for the nice weather and that one guy who didn’t pay attention to his red light and almost ran them over, about 10 minutes ago. Laura kind of appreciated the silence as it wasn’t awkward. They were out in public and no one really cared.

“I’ve heard of this place before,” Levy suddenly said nearly causing Laura to almost drop the cinnamon candle she was sniffing, “Amelia, our old nanny, wanted to bring us here but our mom thought it was a waste of time.”

“She sounds great to be around with, at parties.” Laura commented, “I – I mean, no offense, but –!” Levy cut off the older blonde’s rambling with a laugh.

“No, yeah, she was kind of terrible. I don’t doubt that.” Levy said with a smile. Laura thought the teen looked rather relaxed with her jean jacket, beanie and hands in the pockets of her track pants. “I’m sure you’ve heard about mom from Cohen a bunch.” Laura shook her head.

“I mean, I know that she was very particular about what Cohen did. I don’t know much from your perspective though.” Levy nodded her head and shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, my experience isn’t too different from that.” The younger blonde admitted. “It was more of them expecting me to be fine all the time. No one really checked in with me. They were like ‘Oh, Levy’s smart, she’s fine on her own’.”

“I definitely had an opposite experience. My dad was always hovering over me; the perfect definition of a helicopter dad.” Laura said as they both walked to the next stand.

Conversation began to flow between them pretty easily and Laura was over the moon. She couldn’t believe how well she and the taller twin were getting along, today. She didn’t exactly know what changed but she was glad that Levy was acknowledging her a little more. They mostly talked about their parents while they also voiced their opinions on all the food and knick-knacks that were in the marketplace. After finding their desired fruits, vegetables and other assorted goods, Laura and Levy made their way back to the apartment.

They made it back to the apartment in about the same time in took them to get to the market. Hands full of groceries, Laura carefully yet skillfully unlocked their door with one hand. They walked into the kitchen and began to sort through everything. Levy was about to place some jam in the fridge when she realized something.

“Shit,” Levy said, as she quickly began patting her pockets down.

“What?” Laura asked worriedly. “What’s wrong?” Levy just shook her head.

“Nothing, nothing. I think I may have dropped my phone, out in the parking lot.” The younger blonde said frantically. Laura just snickered.

“Oh, maybe it fell when you almost dropped the sweet potatoes.”

“Hush, don’t be mean.” Levy said as Laura chuckled. “I’ll be right back.” And with that, she was out the door. Laura shook her head and continued to sort through the groceries.

Five minutes had passed and Laura looked towards the front door, from her spot in the kitchen. It was still left wide open from when Levy left to get her phone. Laura looked at the kitchen island; everything had been put away and the teen had not been back. Laura figured that Levy may have gotten into a conversation with a neighbour or possibly wandered a little further than the parking lot, in search of her phone. _I should help her,_ Laura thought as she quickly grabbed her house keys off of the island.

As she locked the door, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Swiftly turning around, it was Mrs. Ames, from across the hall. Laura smiled as she turned towards her neighbour.

“Hey, Mrs. Ames!” Laura greeted, “How are you doing this afternoon?”

“Just fine, thank you. What about yourself, dear?” the old woman asked.

“Oh, I’m great! Just about to look for one of the teens that have been living with us.” Laura replied.

“Right, you are fostering!” Mrs. Ames exclaimed, smiling widely.

“A-actually –!”

“Well,” Mrs. Ames began, cutting her off, “the young girl living with you – the taller one – I saw her outside, speaking with a handsome young man.” Laura’s face fell and quickly got worried. Mrs. Ames didn’t notice her expression and kept going. “He looks a little too old for her but teens will be teens, right? You know my eldest daughter, Melody –!”

“Thank you, Mrs. Ames, but I’ll just go and meet Levy outside!” Laura immediately brushed passed her neighbour and scurried down the hall. She waved goodbye to Mrs. Ames, when she got to the end of the hall, and quickly ran out into the yard.

Now in the visitor’s parking lot, Laura looked around and saw no sign of Levy. She began to panic. _This is how dad felt, all those years,_ Laura thought as she continued to search the premises. She vowed that as soon as she found Levy, she’d call Sherman and apologize for scaring the living crap out of him all her life.

 

-Meanwhile-

 

School had just finished for Cohen and Carmilla decided that they both deserved some ice cream. With her motorcycle still parked at the school, the vampire and the small blonde walked down the street to a bakery with the “best gelato in town”, according to Laura’s extremely knowledgeable sweet tooth. They were now sitting outside, on the bakery’s patio, looking at some of the sheet music for Cohen’s audition.

“You play the saxophone?” Carmilla asked as she finished her strawberry gelato and placed the spoon in the now empty cup. Cohen was still stuffing her face with a regular mint chip ice-cream cone. Carmilla just shook her head when Cohen peeled her face away from the cold treat, revealing mint-coloured liquid around her mouth, flowing down her chin.

“Yeah,” the blonde replied, “I’ve played it since I finally convinced the old man to buy me one, two Christmases ago.” Immediately after answering, she dove right back in to her dessert. Carmilla smiled; this one was entertaining.

“Do you still own one?”

“Yeah, dude.” Cohen answered, mouth full of mint chip.

“Where?” the vampire asked, very confused. “I haven’t seen it.”

“It’s the only thing in my big yellow suitcase.” The blonde answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“So, all your clothes were in the other suitcase and your duffle bag?”

“Yuh.” Cohen answered, “I only wear like…seven things.”

“Odd.” Before Carmilla could say anything else, the vampire’s phone rang. Carmilla took her phone out and looked at the caller ID; it read ‘Levy K.’ The dark-haired woman was very confused considering she hadn’t spoken to Levy at all since Wednesday. Regardless of their fight, Carmilla answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Hello Mercy,” Came a man’s voice. Carmilla leant forward in her seat, clutching the armrest with her free hand.

“How the hell did you get this phone?” the vampire seethed into the device. A dark chuckle was heard and Carmilla could feel her stomach churn.

“Well, it belongs to your daughter so you tell me.” The man said, still chuckling.

“I don’t have a –!” Carmilla paused when she realized what was happening.

“Uh, uh, uh,” the male voice scolded, “don’t lie to me. By the way, Mercy, how dare you neglect to tell me about a niece. You know, out of all of us, I didn’t know you’d be the one to follow after Maman; adopting the needy.”

“What have you done?!” Carmilla snarled. “Where is she?!”

“Oh, your precious little one is safe and sound, right here.” The voice teased, “Would you like to say hi?” without waiting for a response, he proceeded to give the phone to the girl in question. “Sag hallo for your mother, little one.”

“CARM!” Carmilla heard Levy’s cries through the phone and she felt her stomach drop and her muscles tense. It was a type of pained cry for help that Carmilla had heard many times, as girls would be pawned off to her mother, all those years ago. “CARM, HELP! I-I-I’M SORRY, I –!” Immediately, after the phone was taken away from Levy, the vampire felt her insides twist in a way that made her want to vomit.

“What do you want?” the vampire asked through her teeth.

“You know exactly what I want, Mercy.” The voice said, “You’d better hurry. She smells rather appetizing and –!”

“If you lay a finger on her, you son of a –!”

“Mircalla, you know better than to swear in the presence of your little one.” the man said, in a teasing tone. “Now meet me this evening or, by this time tomorrow, I’d have a full stomach…and one less niece.”

“So you’re going to invite me over without an address?” Carmilla quipped, trying to hide the fear and worry in her voice. The man laughed again, their tone still very much a condescending one.

“I’ll be honest, Mercy; I’m not familiar with this part of town. There’s water…some condos…and I can see the island from here.” Carmilla made note of his clues. She trusted that they were accurate since he was attempting to lure her in anyway. “You’d better hurry, Mercy. I need a snack and your daughter smells…very refreshing.”

“Don’t you dare –!”

“What? It’s your own fault the thing is still human!” before hanging up, the man said, “I hope to see you tonight, Mircalla. Time’s a ticking.” And with that the line cut and Carmilla was left with the phone’s ‘disconnected call’ tone. Carmilla inhaled sharply, and slowly, as she closed her eyes and tightened her grip on the chair.

“What’s going on?” Cohen asked, pulling Carmilla from her enraged trance. The vampire gave Cohen an apologetic look before standing up. She just shrugged her shoulders and motioned for the girl to follow after her.

“We’ve got to get home, right now.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carmilla involuntarily gets help from some unexpected folks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all enjoy this one!

 

-The Hollis/Karnstein Apartment-

 

The atmosphere was incredibly tense in the small kitchen, this evening. The entire gang showed up immediately after Carmilla announced that Levy had possibly been abducted. Danny and Perry were in the twins’ room, attempting to console and comfort a very distressed Cohen. Laura hadn’t moved from Carmilla’s side, in their kitchen, while LaF was sitting across from them at their laptop, diligently tracking Levy’s device through Carmilla’s phone. Mattie and J.P. (formerly Will) were in the kitchen as well, while Mel and Kirsch stood by, in the living room, calmly waiting for a plan to actually formulate and take place.

Laura was incredibly grateful for her friends but was still feeling a little guilty for letting Levy go off on her own. She should have been more hesitant to let her leave, by herself, while many of the gangs and criminals were still looking for the twins. Carmilla sensed Laura’s discomfort and slowly rubbed circles on the smaller woman’s lower back.

“It’s not your fault cupcake,” Carmilla began, in a soothing voice, “and I’m almost certain that the criminals are not our culprits.”

“But are you certain, Mircalla?” Mattie interjected, still baffled by her sister’s accusation earlier.

“Mattie; no one else refers to me as ‘Mercy’! It’s got to be Tobias!” the younger vampire insisted. A puzzled expression began to form on Laura’s face.

“Who’s Tobias?”

“To my understanding,” J.P. said, adjusting the hat he was wearing in an attempt to tame his messy hair, “Tobias Larsson was one of the many who were ‘recruited’ to be apart of Lilita Morgan’s ‘family unit’. In other words –!”

“He was our brother.” Mattie affirmed. Laura was still puzzled.

“What do you mean by that? Why are you using ‘was’ as past tense?”

“He was…cut off from the ‘family’.” Carmilla expanded, “He became a bit of a ‘bad apple’, way before I started rebelling.”

“He was a Swedish delegate, in 1695, that fell ill with a virus during a diplomatic tour in Austria. Maman had revived him and he was devoted to her for just about 30 some years.” Mattie paused, thinking over how much of the story she was going to actually share. After mulling it over, she continued, “He was supposed to be the strongest out of the ten of us – in a physical sense – yet he never got over his newborn bloodlust. One year, just days prior to one of the sacrificial ceremonies that Maman used to organize, the brute decided that his hunger outweighed the need to harmonize universal balance and he devoured all of the sacrificial subjects.” At this information, LaF and Laura stared at Mattie, their mouths gaping in disbelief. “If we hadn’t had Mircalla and Will, we wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the ceremony.”

“I hadn’t seen him since then.” Carmilla contributed, “I tried to reason with Maman because I didn’t know what we were using the women for at the time. Essentially, I thought that her outrage was completely unwarranted and Tobias’ punishment was unjustified.  Shortly after the incident, two of my other siblings dragged him out of bed one evening and I never saw him again.” The vampire confessed. She didn’t remember much of her brother other than he was incredibly unstable, narcissistic and strong. She recalled her two older brothers came back to the mansion with scars and bruises all over them, that night in 1725.

“What did your siblings do to subdue him?” LaF inquired, very engrossed in the conversation. Mattie and Carmilla looked at one another, silently discussing who should answer. LaFontaine really wanted to know about this considering this vampire’s potential strength. Sure, they had Mel, Kirsch, Danny and Carmilla but only two of them were immortal beings and only one of them had only been a vampire for 5 years. The thought of this immortal creature, needing two experienced vampires to subdue them, was incredibly daunting and LaF wanted to devise a plan as thoroughly as possible. Carmilla looked towards LaF and sighed.

“I didn’t see what happened to Tobias.” She answered solemnly. “As far as I’m aware two of my siblings went, that night. I don’t know anything else.” She then looked towards Mattie for further elaboration.

“Because of our lack of Tobias knowledge, I took the liberty of –!” Mattie was cut off by three loud knocks on the apartment’s front door. Everyone became silent, looking towards the eldest vampire for an explanation. Mattie just smiled as she toyed with the wine glass, with hemo soy, in her hand. “…enlisting some reinforcements.” The tall vampire walked into the living and snapped her fingers at Kirsch and Mel. “Would you two be _dolls_ , for a moment, and answer the door for us?” the two people, in question, glared at the condescending woman before looking at one another.

“Sure, Scary Hottie Number Two.” Kirsch answered, “But, like, how can we open the door when we’re pretending to be dolls?” Kirsch asked rather genuinely. Carmilla chuckled while everyone else either groaned or rolled their eyes.

“Just come with me to answer the door, Scoob.” Mel instructed, hitting him upside his head with a magazine that she rolled up. Mel sauntered off to the front door trailed by Kirsch who was rubbing the back of his head, still befuddled about Mattie’s order.

Each picking up one of the umbrellas by the door, Mel and Kirsch braced themselves as the latter unlatched the door and opened it. Once it was opened, it revealed two tall men, presumably in their early 30’s. One of them was dressed in a fitted navy-blue suit with a skinny black tie. He had a hairstyle that was similar to LaF’s, but it was blonde and slicked back. He had the slightest hint of facial hair but was, otherwise, pretty clean-cut. The other man, right behind him, had a slightly tanned complexion and was wearing a fitted grey suit. He had black hair, a soul patch and glasses. His expression was serious while the blonde man wore a smirk akin to Mattie’s.  

Laura felt Carmilla’s body tense as Mattie beckoned both men to follow her into the kitchen. As the two men came into the vicinity, Carmilla stood up, hand still grasping Laura for support. The journalist eyed her girlfriend’s expression, carefully, in order to decipher who exactly these men were to Carmilla.

“Glad you two could make it on such short notice, mes petit frères.” Mattie said, her arms outstretched. The tall blonde man smiled as he made his way to her. Before he could get any closer, Mattie frowned and lowered her arms. “I’d be happier if you’d shown up sooner than later, though.” The man lowered his arms as well, sighing in response to Mattie’s apparent disapproval.

“Well it would have been much easier to get here had ‘Mr. Leisurely-Stroll’, here, emphasized his pace.” The blonde man said as he accused his counterpart. The other man, in the grey suit, groaned and took a step towards Mattie.

“With all due respect, _brother_ ,” The other man began, “ _I’m_ not the one with _billions_ of hair product in my mane that could potentially combust any second now.” Both men in suits glared at one another before Laura spoke up.

“Um, no offence, but who are you guys?” at the question, Mattie and the two men looked at one another expectantly. After a maniacal chuckle, the blonde man stepped towards Laura and offered his hand for a shake. She eyed him before looking to Carmilla. The vampire just rolled her eyes and nodded. Laura then shook his hand and he began to introduce himself.

“I’m Artan Shala.” he said, “In 1616, I was killed during the Ottoman Empire’s control over the Northern sector of Albania. To my advantage, or weakness, I was found by Lilita Morgan and was taken under her wing, alongside Matska.”

“And I’m Douglas Cedric Wyndham.” The other man started, “I was a servant to the Duke of Albany’s Valet for about 5 years. In 1620, my master’s abuse was too much and I was offered immense strength and eternal life by Lilita. I was able to subdue my abusers, escape and was subsequently recruited by the very one who gave me strength.” Both men bowed towards Laura rather gracefully. It seemed that for being centuries-old murderers, vampires were very courteous and well-mannered.

“In other words, these are my brothers.” Mattie concluded, looking towards Carmilla. “Well, _our_ brothers.”

“It’s good to see you again, Mircalla!” Douglas said, cheerily. Carmilla just rolled her eyes.

“Ditto.” Carmilla’s response elicited an exaggerated chuckle from Artan.

“You don’t have to be so enthused, sister.”

“Well you don’t have to be here.” Carmilla spat back.

“False.” Artan responded, “We wouldn’t have to be here if you stopped meddling around with your human playthings, pretending to be mother, and adopting _humans._ ” The dark-haired vampire rid herself of Laura’s hold and stepped right in front of Artan. He towered over her smaller form.

“I am NOT pretending to be mother by finding happiness –!”

“You call THIS happiness?!”

“ENOUGH!” Mattie interjected, separating her siblings by stepping between them. “Stop this nonsense, immediately. Carmilla, they are here to help take down Tobias since they’re the ones who did it originally.”

“If they’d done it _properly_ , we wouldn’t be in this mess.” Carmilla spat back, glaring at Artan. He didn’t back down either and stepped around Mattie only to tower over Carmilla once more.

“We wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t romanticized humans and continued to play pretend!”

“Stop fighting!” J.P. screeched, hands over his ears.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WITH ALL THIS YELLING?!” a new voice cried out and everyone in the room looked towards the entrance of the kitchen where a disheveled Cohen stood. She was accompanied by Danny and Perry who each had a hand on one of her shoulders. Immediately, Cohen sought out Laura and Carmilla and rushed to stand between them, effectively wrapping her arms around the couple.

“You’ve got another one?” Artan asked, eyeing the small blonde girl. Ignoring him, Carmilla just stared at Cohen and felt sympathy. She thought that Laura’s crying was enough to shatter her soul but seeing Cohen cry was a different kind of pain. The small blonde sniffed and snuggled further into Laura as the journalist stroked her hair in a poor attempt to ease her worrying.

“All of this incessant arguing woke up Cohen!” Perry said, reprimanding the group of adults.

“Don’t fret, child,” Mattie said suddenly, “we will find your sibling in due time.” Confused and frightened, by this new mysterious woman, Cohen stared at her.

“Who are these people?” the small blonde asked no one in particular.

“This is Mattie, Artan and Douglas.” Carmilla introduced, softly, “They are my brothers and sister.” Cohen never took her eyes off of the vampire’s family, engraving their images into her mind. The three figures were all tall and menacingly ominous. They exuded a confidence that eerily reminded Cohen of her own mother and took half a step back, still remaining in Laura’s arms.

Carmilla could feel Cohen’s discomfort and felt that she needed to settle her nerves. This was Carmilla’s family, after all, and there was a chance that the twins would come into contact with Artan, Mattie, Douglas and J.P. often. The dark-haired vampire stepped closer to Cohen and lowered herself to the 14-year-old’s eye level. She offered a soft smile.

“They won’t hurt you, buttercup.” She said, looking into Cohen’s eyes. “I promise.” For some odd reason, Cohen found strength in this affirmation from the vampire. Cohen sniffled again and returned Carmilla’s gaze.

“Then if they do something, you’ll owe me big time?” Cohen asked and Carmilla smirked.

“Anything you want, buttercup.” The vampire reassured and they smiled at one another.

“Adorable.” Artan interjected, rolling his eyes at the affection in the room. “However, this…this incredibly nauseating display of trust is not going to help us take down Tobias.” Douglas nodded.

“I, oddly enough, agree with brother dearest. He’s not going to be able to control himself around a human, so we’d better start moving.”

“I’ve got a location!” LaF announced, redirecting all the attention to them. “I relayed the signal towards a shipment yard, east of the harbourfront.”

“Oh!” Kirsch interrupted, “Is it by the Korean restaurant? I’m starving! OW!” he yelped as he was hit with the magazine, once more.

“Pipe down and listen to Dexter’s Lab, numbskull!” Mel instructed, “We can eat after we find the missing Olsen twin!” once again, all eyes were on LaF, waiting for their input and suggestions for further direction.

“I’ve got a plan,” they started, “but I’m gonna need some strategical contributions from the older vamps in the room.” Mattie, Artan, J.P., Douglas and Carmilla moved in closer in order to hear LaF’s instructions. “So, here’s what I was thinking…”

 

-The Harbourfront About an Hour Later-

 

The plan established three groups: the “initial group”, the “enforcement group”, and the “support group”. The “initial group” consisted of Carmilla, Laura, Danny, Mel and Kirsch because Tobias would be expecting Carmilla to show up with her human friends. Their group’s job was to find Tobias and distract him from paying attention to his surroundings. Douglas told LaF that Tobias was very in tune with his secondary senses and warned them about his reflexes. The “enforcement group” was made up of Mattie and Artan. Their role was to trail behind the “initial group” covertly, so that Tobias would be caught off guard by their presence. And lastly, the “support group” was LaF and J.P., who kept tabs on all the members using a homing device and the synchronization of everyone’s mobile devices. They stayed away at a greater distance, from both groups, as to not interfere at all. J.P. held on to an infrared device while LaF used the homing device. The unnamed group was Perry and Cohen, who stayed back at the apartment. The smaller blonde was exhausted and Perry offered to watch over her while she slept until everyone had come back. Douglas also decided to stay back as a bodyguard for Perry and Cohen.

The “initial group” were currently walking around the shipment yard. It was dark and uncharacteristically cold for an early October evening. The odd quartet searched between all the aisles of stacked cargo trailers.

“So how are you feeling about the Bloody Brady Bunch, Hollis?” Mel asked Laura. “Must be sudden, having the Addams Family over, right now.”

“Honestly, it’s kind of interesting. Carm’s only ever spoken about Mattie and Will and that’s because I’ve met them. It seems like she’s still reluctant to tell me about everything, and I don’t know how to feel about it.”

“Whoa, I just wanted your input on the first impressions. Save the rest for Dr. Doolittle.”

“Oh, shut it, Mel.” Danny jumped in, “I think that you should confront her more, Laura. I mean it’s been 6 years; don’t you think you have the right to ask a little more?”

“I’m right here, dimwits.” Carmilla said, annoyed about the conversation that was, more or less, creating potential relationship problems. “Laura, my family is pretty big and any information I tell you, that you don’t need to know yet, would be pointless.” Carmilla then turned to Danny and Mel, “Right now, I’d appreciate it if we all shut the hell up and looked for my kid, got it Xena and Lara Croft?” Mel and Danny just shrugged while Laura was fixated on her girlfriend’s choice of words.

“Did you just say ‘your kid’?” the journalist asked, causing their friends to smirk and Carmilla to shrug.

“Don’t read into that; let’s keep moving.” The vampire snarled and rushed off to the front of their pack. Laura just smiled, knowingly. Her big and scary vampire was developing a soft spot for the girls and she was totally going to exploit that any way possible.

After a few more minutes, Carmilla raised her fist, signalling her friends to stop in their tracks. Before anyone could ask anything, the vampire growled.

“Tobias!” she cried, “Show your goddamn self! Quit being a fucking coward!” after a moment of silence, the group heard a low chuckle from behind them.

“You’re so charming, Mercy,” Came a voice from the shadows. “such a wonderful guest.” Everyone turned around to see an averaged sized man with short spikey brown hair. He was dressed in a black peacoat and black ripped jeans. He smirked at the group because he had significant upper hand as he had his arm draped over Levy’s shoulders.

“LEV!” Laura cried, as she started to move towards the teen. Before she could properly advance, Danny and Mel held her back. Carmilla, on the other hand, stalked towards her brother like a lioness. Tobias just laughed again.

“Sister! How lovely it is for you to stop by.”

“Unhand her, Toby.” Carm instructed, “She’s not what you’re after.”

“Oh, believe me, I know.” Tobias replied, “She’s got quite the feisty little attitude that I find is an incredible nuisance.”

“Let go of me, creep!” Levy said, trying to shrug herself out of his grasp. She hissed in pain as he dug his nails, further, into her shoulder.

“Now, now, niece; let’s be nice.” He reprimanded in a smooth tone. She simply glared at him.

“I am NOT your niece!”

“Just let her go, Toby.” Carmilla said, this time her tone was a sort of angry plea, “You’ve got us here, just let her go!”

“What makes you so confident that you know what I’m looking for, Mercy?” Tobias inquired. Carmilla shook her head.

“Why don’t you tell me why the hell you’re here, first?” Carmilla suggested, menacingly. Before Tobias could answer, he heard a thud come from behind him.

“How the hell did you escape?” Artan said, appearing behind Tobias. He was accompanied by Mattie, who stood a little further back. Tobias addressed Carmilla then.

“Mercy…I wish you’d have told me about…these ones.” Tobias snickered, evilly, and slowly turned to face the new faces. “Evening, Artie and Matts! How nice of you to drop in.”

“Yeah, Literally.” Kirsch commented, standing at a safe distance from the scarier vampires alongside Laura, Mel and Danny. Danny shushed him and Mel slapped his wrist while Laura never took her eyes off of Levy or Carm.

“Well, you know us…” Mattie said, addressing Tobias. “trying to keep the family…ties.” He scoffed.

“By encasing me in cement and dropping me down into the depths of the Atlantic?!” Tobias growled, temporarily releasing his hold on Levy. The young blonde took a chance and darted towards Carmilla, immediately, and the vampire wrapped her up in her arms securely.

“CARM–!” Levy cried, into the older woman’s chest, “C-Carm – I-I’m s-s-s-sorry! I didn’t m-mean to be a brat –!”

“Shh, it’s okay.” Carmilla soothed, holding the teenager close to her. “It’s okay, I get it.”

Laura watched the interaction and felt her heart warm at the sight. _We’re gonna be okay,_ she thought. She was relieved that Levy was alright and even more relieved that her and Carm could resolve their conflicts. Completely ignoring the charming familial display behind them, Tobias, Mattie and Artan continued to be in a standoff.

“We wouldn’t have had to if you controlled your goddamn self!” Artan gritted through his teeth. He lurched forward, but stopped when he felt Mattie’s hand on his chest, preventing him to move any further.

“Calm, brother.” Mattie chided him, “Here you are, accusing him of no control, and you’re here ready to do the same thing.”

“He’s right though, isn’t he Matska?” Tobias asked rhetorically, “I’m a monster; I slaughtered countless helpless people, in my time.” There was an obvious air of sarcasm in his tone, “There is no one else, on this planet, that has amounted to the atrocities that I, alone, have committed in my lifespan!”

“Oh, that’s rich.” Artan scoffed, “How dare you try and minimize your actions!”

“Everyone in our ‘family’ was murdering for a living!” Tobias justified, “And I was thrown under the bus – ocean rather – for doing the same?!”

“You know damn well why we needed those sacrifices, you imbecile!” Artan snarled, Mattie still holding him in his place. “Lilita almost killed us all after your little stunt!” Levy looked up at Carmilla, very confused.

“What’s the creepy guy talking about? And who the hell are _those_ people?” she asked and Carmilla just shook her head.

“Just shut up and back out of here, real slow.” Carmilla instructed, “I’ll explain everything when we get home. Just walk over to Laura without making a sound.” Levy looked at Carm in disbelief, rapidly shaking her head.

“No!” Levy answered, “I’m not leaving you here!”

“You ever wanna see your sister again, Tweedle Dee?” Carmilla hissed back, “Just go to Laura!”

“But –!”

“I’ll be fine, kid.” The vampire reassured. Levy gave one more squeeze and slowly made her way to where Laura was. Carmilla never took her eyes off of her siblings.

“SHE COULD HAVE KILLED US ALL, AND YOU KNEW IT!” Artan shouted, leaping towards Tobias. Mattie didn’t react fast enough and Artan successfully tackled Tobias to the floor.

“ARTAN, YOU IDIOT!” Mattie screeched, trying to pry her brothers apart.

“GUYS, LET’S GO!” Danny yelled, beckoning all her friends to follow her.

“Carm!” Laura shouted back but her girlfriend just shook her head. The vampire pointed towards the other direction before joining her siblings in the dog pile. Laura tried to run back but Kirsch picked her up. “KIRSCH! PUT ME DOWN!”

“Sorry, Little Hottie,” he said as they ran away from where Tobias was, “Promised Carmilla I’d keep you from jumping into a fight!”

“What?!” Laura asked, in shock. “When did you promise her that?! Kirsch!” the man just ignored her line of questioning and continued to run.

 

-The Hollis/Karnstein Apartment-

 

“LEVY!” Cohen exclaimed as her twin came through the front door. The taller twin was in the middle of taking off her sneakers when Cohen aggressively wrapped her arms around her. Levy hugged her back and they cried together. Laura felt her own tears threatening to escape but Perry began to lightly massage her shoulders.

“It’s all good now, sweetheart,” she soothed, “Everyone’s okay now.” Perry shouldn’t have said that because Levy had heard it and began to stress about Carmilla.

“WHY DID WE JUST LEAVE HER THERE?!” Levy questioned, frantically from her sister’s embrace. “WHY AREN’T WE WAITING?!”

“Oh my god.” Mel groaned, “Settle down!” Laura shot her friend a warning glare and the other woman just waved her off.

“Lev, Carm’s gonna be fine.” Laura reassured her yet she was probably speaking to herself more than anything. “She’s got some…family issues to deal with.”

“Wait…so all those creepy people were her…family?!” Levy asked the journalist with widened eyes and disbelief in her tone.

“Yes,” Douglas said, coming out of the kitchen with a bottle of hemo soy. “I’m also one of them.” He offered a comforting smile towards her that Laura really appreciated. She got a feeling that Douglas was not as intense as everyone else. “I’m Douglas Cedric Wyndham; Mir - Carmilla’s brother.” He was still getting used to his sister’s newer name.

“Are you a vampire too?” the teen asked.

“Yeah,” Cohen said, jumping in. “He’s been a bloodsucker since 1620. He’s also really good at Jeopardy.” At this comment, Perry sighed and Douglas rolled his eyes. When everyone had left, Cohen persuaded them to watch the game show with her until everyone came back.

“Damn.” Levy said. She then offered her hand for him to shake and he happily obliged. “I’m Levy. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” He told her, “I apologize for our…other brother’s actions. He’s…not the best of the bunch.”

“Do you know why he’s here?” J.P. intercepted, from behind the twins. “I thought you said that he was encased in cement at the bottom of the Atlantic.” Douglas cringed at his…sort of brother. Levy stared at Laura for any sort of explanation but the older blonde just patted her knee and told her to ask later.

“Well, cement has the opportunity to dissolve, in certain climates.” Douglas offered, “I tried to tell Artan and Matska that encasing him in cement, in saltwater, would eventually fail us. They obviously didn’t listen to me.”

“Carm kept saying that she knew what he wanted,” Danny jumped in, “what…what is he looking for?”

“What he’s looking for is very simple,” Douglas said solemnly, “He wants Lilita's children.” The mood in the room shifted and Laura spoke up.

“And what does he want with them?” she followed-up.

“Revenge.” Douglas answered simply. Before he could say anything else, there was a rush of cold air and the other vampiric siblings had shown up by the front door. Douglas smiled as he watched his siblings panting, tired and bruised from their encounter with Tobias. He slowly walked towards them and placed a hand on Carmilla’s shoulder. “Did we all play nice with Toby, this evening?” He asked and his siblings groaned.

“Stuff it, Doug.” Carmilla said, attempting to catch her breath. Laura immediately ran to her girlfriend’s side and adjusted her so that she could stand up straight. Carmilla gave Laura an appreciative pat on her arm without taking her eyes off of her brother. “Wipe that smugness off of your face.” She added and he feigned confusion.

“Whatever do you mean, Mircalla?” he laughed once more before asking the real questions. “Did you manage to kill him?” The three siblings shook their heads.

“No.” Mattie said, regretfully. “But we chased him to the border and he is now in the United States.”

“I plan on looking for him there, but I doubt he’ll remain in America for long.” Artan added, rubbing the bruise that was forming on the left side of his face.

Laura, being Laura, was devastated that all of this had happened in the first place. If she had walked outside with Levy, perhaps Tobias would not have taken her. But then again, what advantage would her krav maga be against a centuries-old vampire who was hell-bent on killing his entire family? She wanted to keep Carm and the girls safe - needed to keep them safe - but she knew that she had little control over what the girls and other vampires could potentially do. Regardless of her reasoning, she was going to try her best to keep her girls safe.

Huh?

_Her girls?_

“How did he manage to kidnap Levy?” Laura questioned the group of vampires, cutting off her mental slip up. She wanted to know so that could attempt to predict what would happen next. Mattie was the one to answer.

“He said that he had been stalking everyone in Styria since his escape.” she explained, “Around the time that Maman was using your friend as a puppet, was when he resurfaced. After figuring out her plan, he realized that we’d all be doomed. Thus, he moved back to Norway where he enjoyed his time, knowing we’d all be killed. When the world didn’t end, he aggressively researched our petite chou here.” Mattie said pointing towards Laura. “He thought that Mircalla would be whipped and assumed that she’d still be with you. So, he moved to Toronto. Coincidentally, he said that he got a job at the school as a custodian –!”

“As he belongs near trash –!” Artan interrupted. Everyone ignored him but Mel nodded at the jab.

“He heard the name ‘Karnstein’ yelled out, in the gymnasium.” The eldest vampire continued, “When he saw who answered, it was Levy. From there, he decided to use her as bait.” Laura frowned at this information.

“So…since he found you guys…does that mean he’s moving on to something else?” the journalist asked, fearful that he’d strike again and try to kidnap both of the kids. Mattie shook her head.

“Fear not. He has the information that he was after.” Mattie said, moving towards the kitchen to grab some more hemo soy. She hated the idea of drinking ‘fake blood’ but she needed energy after tonight’s events.

“He’ll be moving on.” Douglas said, adjusting his skinny tie. "Perhaps to find the rest of our 'family'."

“Where do you think he’s going then?” J.P. questioned. Douglas sighed and placed his hands on his hips. He wanted to answer, but couldn’t bring himself to. Sensing his brother’s discomfort, Artan stepped in.

“Most of our siblings still reside in Europe,” The blonde man answered answered, “He’ll be headed there, whenever he gets the chance.” a collective annoyed groan erupted from Carmilla and her siblings. 

“Bloody Christ.” Douglas whined, running a hand through his black hair. Laura was about to ask more questions about this new information when Carmilla waved at her siblings and their friends.

“Thanks for all your help, Mystery Inc. and the Flintstones.” Carmilla addressed with her usual blatant sarcasm. “As much as I like to make-believe that we are the entire cast of ‘Full House’, I do believe we’ve earned some rest. Please leave my home now.” After a series of goodbyes and groaning, everyone began to reluctantly leave the apartment. Levy and Cohen gave everyone “Thank you” hugs and held the door open for them as they exited. Most of Carmilla and Laura’s friends had left, but the vampires stayed back a little longer.

“We’ll come back when we locate the bastard.” Artan promised before using his vampire speed to leave the apartment. Douglas, Mattie and J.P. nodded in agreement with the blonde man’s words.

“Don’t worry, Mircalla,” Mattie said placing a hand on her sister’s cheek. She then walked over to Cohen and Levy and patted each of them on the head. “we’ll make sure he doesn’t bother these little tykes again.” And with that the apartment was free of vampires that were not Carmilla.

Laura and Carmilla sighed as Levy locked the front door. The couple collapsed onto the couch, exhausted from the events of their day. The twins joined them but laid down on the floor, by the coffee table. There was a gravid, but not awkward, silence that enveloped the atmosphere around them as they relished the fact that all four of them were home at last. Levy was fighting sleep, facedown on the hardwood floor when Cohen’s voice broke through the silence.

“So, can someone legitimately fill me in on what the hell actually happened today?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my least favourite chapter, so far. I will tweak it whenever I figure out what it's missing. I'm trying to get out of my "comedy/fluff writing trap". Criticism is always welcome!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura and her ladies are headed to the cottage for the Thanksgiving weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving, before Halloween for context...Halloween will be a separate Chapter)! How will Sherman Handle being a "sort of-almost-not officially-well officially but not in a social context" GRANDPA?

-In Laura’s Mini Cooper-

 

Much to Carmilla’s dismay, the week flew by and it was time to celebrate Thanksgiving. The events that happened, just days ago, were already forgotten and left in the past. Cohen and Levy did have a ton of questions about the other vampires and Carmilla found herself answering all of them. Not because she wanted to but because the little twerps figured out many ways to annoy the living crap out of her if she neglected to answer right away. The vampire decided that telling the twins about whatever they asked would settle their curiosity for a little longer and they wouldn’t be enticed to bother her. She was very wrong in that respect; Carmilla quickly found out that kids would annoy you no matter what was going on. Exhibit A could very well be this entire road trip up to Collingwood, to see Laura’s family.

“Hey, Carm.” Cohen egged, poking the vampire’s temple with her pinky. It was Laura’s car, so the twins took extra advantage of Carmilla being in the passenger seat, forcing her to respond to their shitty jokes. Levy giggled as she pointed her phone’s camera at her twin and the vampire, patiently waiting for Carm to acknowledge them. Despite Carmilla not answering, Cohen proceeded to pry. “Carm. Carm. Carmie. Carm. Carm. Carmilla. Carm. Carm-esan cheese. Carm. Cruella de Carm-villa –!”

“ _What_?” Carmilla groaned, turning around to face the culprit. Cohen could hardly contain her laughter after seeing how angry the vampire was but went through with her plan anyway.

“Chicken butt.” Was all the short-haired blonde said before she burst out laughing. Levy joined in with tears in her eyes. Carmilla turned back to face the windshield and shook her head. Laura chuckled at her girlfriend’s expression.

“This was a terrible idea.” Carm groaned, crossing her arms. Laura just laughed and took hold of her grumpy girl’s hand.

“This will be so much fun,” Laura insisted, “you’ve loved coming up to the cottage every year, so far.”

Every year, the Hollis family would gather at a series of rental cottages, up North, for Thanksgiving. Carmilla thought that it was kind of useless yet rather charming, in the ‘Hollis’ way. The family would typically get there on the Saturday evening and celebrate on Monday, but Laura wanted to bring the twins a little earlier to spend some quality time with her dad. Cohen and Levy confessed that they never knew any of their extended family members so Laura thought that it would be nice for them to meet their ‘legal-guardian-grandfather’ before the rest of the family could bother them.

“I guess.” Carmilla said, staring out the window. She was still kind of worried, knowing that her own family was in the area attempting to track down her rogue brother. She knew that Tobias was no longer looking for them, but that thought alone would not hinder her from still being a little paranoid about it.

“Hey,” Laura said, briefly seeing the look on her girlfriend’s face, “you okay?” the vampire just squeezed the journalist’s hand a little tighter.

“Yeah, yeah, just…still thinking about our _family reunion_ from last week.” Laura was about to say something when Cohen beat her to the punch.

“I thought they were pretty gnarly, actually.” Cohen said, opening a new bag of chips. “Creepy, but they were cool. Doug was pretty awesome.”

“Yeah; Artan and Mattie were funny.” Levy chimed in. Carmilla’s face contorted into confusion.

“Really?” the vampire asked, mildly puzzled, “You actually liked them?”

“Hmm…more like…we don’t _mind_ them.” Levy answered. “We’ve never had anyone aside from our parents before.”

“And they came to help, even though they were hella sassy about it. It felt nice; having people there.” Cohen added to her sister’s answer. The addition would have been much sweeter if the smaller blonde wasn’t stuffing her face with Cheetos. Suddenly, a song came on the radio that none of the women recognized. Laura was about to change it when Cohen aggressively stopped her by taking off her seatbelt and lunging for the older blonde’s hand with her own Cheeto-covered fingers.

“DUDE, HOLD UP; THIS IS MY SONG!” she cried. Laura smiled, but gently shoved the girl backwards using her free hand.

“Haha, just put your seatbelt on. I’ll turn it up when your buckled up again.” Laura instructed as Cohen obeyed immediately. Once the journalist heard the familiar sound of the seatbelt locking, she turned up the music as promised. Cohen began wildly dancing in her seat to the extremely upbeat pop song that was playing. Laura looked at the car radio and the station said it was a song by someone she’s never even heard of before. She then looked in her rear-view mirror to see Levy nodding along to the beat. Laura chuckled and Carmilla rolled her eyes but couldn’t keep the slight grin from tugging at the corner of her mouth.

 

-Sherman Hollis’ Cottage-

 

The odd family pulled up to the Hollis cottage that afternoon, around 3 p.m. They made pretty good time considering the fact that they left their apartment at 12:30 p.m. The drive is only supposed to be an hour and a half, from Toronto to Collingwood, but Laura insisted that they stop for food because Levy woke up late and missed breakfast. All in all, it was a pretty smooth ride...until an annoying pop song came on that Cohen just happened to know religiously. Any hope of napping in the car was swiftly deterred by that.

As Laura put the car in park and turned it off, she just kind of sat there eyeing the cottage. The nerves she had, about her dad meeting the twins, were so apparent. She closed her eyes and took a calming breath as she ripped the keys out of the ignition. Carmilla looked over at her with an eyebrow raised.

“You ready, cupcake?” Laura just sighed and nodded.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She leaned over and placed a kiss onto her vampire’s lips. She didn’t pull away as quickly, letting herself indulge in all that was Carmilla. Laura could feel Carmilla trying to deepen the kiss but before they could continue into their blissful state, they heard the sound of someone aggressively trying to open a car door, from the backseat. Carmilla and Laura pulled away to see Cohen snapping a photo of them while Levy was trying to escape.

“How dare you child-lock us in and force us to watch you eat each other’s faces.” Was all Levy had to say, causing Carmilla to snicker and Laura to blush. Laura and Carmilla rolled their eyes.

“Seriously, though,” Cohen pleaded jiggling the door handle, “I really gotta pee.”

Carmilla, Levy and Laura went to grab their bags from the trunk of the car while Cohen ran towards the front door of the cottage. She temporarily ignored the feeling in her abdomen, telling her that her bladder was going to explode, as she stared at the door. She was suddenly very nervous. Cohen began to have second thoughts about meeting Laura’s father. _What if he doesn’t like me? What if he finds me just as annoying as mom did. What if –!_ Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door unlatching and squeaking open to reveal a somewhat stalky old man wearing khakis, a blue plaid shirt, a grey fishing vest and some dad slippers. She slowly looked up to meet his gaze. He kind of just looked at her like a deer in headlights, as if adjusting to the mere sight of this new stranger on his doorstep. After a moment of silence, Cohen decided to finally introduce herself.

“Hello, sir.” She said shyly, as she adjusted the glasses on her face. She was surprised to see this rugged woodsman smile widely as he gave her a nod.

“Hi,” he greeted almost equally as awkward as Cohen did, “You must be…uh – Cohen? Laura said Cohen was the one with the glasses.” He told her, pointedly. Cohen just shrugged her shoulders and nodded.

“I am, indeed, Cohen; the one with the glasses.” He offered an awkward smile and patted her on her shoulder.

“Great. I’m Sherman, Laura’s dad.” He said introducing himself, “Come on in, uh, make yourself at home.” He gestured behind him, into the cottage and she had no choice but to go in. Shortly after Cohen entered, the other three showed up. “Laura!” he said excitedly, arms opened wide ready to hold his daughter. She smiled, lugging her bags, as she walked into her father’s loving embrace. “How are ya, sweetheart?!”

“Great, Dad!” she said, leaning into him, “I missed you.”

“Missed you too, kiddo!” He let go of her when he saw Carmilla and another new face. Laura watched as his expression grew a little nervous and she nudged him reassuringly.

“Mr. Hollis.” Carm teased, raising an eye-brow at the rugged woodsman. He chuckled and returned her expression.

“Miss Karnstein. Do you own anything that has colour in it?” he asked with a laugh as he saw her outfit. She was wearing black leggings, knee high leather boots, a dark grey crop top and a grey flannel. Her sunglasses were still covering her eyes and her hair fell in waves, just over her shoulders.

“The only things I have, with colour, are the white shirts with stains on them from cupcake over there.” The vampire said, directing an accusatory smirk at her girlfriend. Laura huffed and Sherman laughed loudly. Levy couldn’t help but laugh at Laura as well; she was very messy for an adult. Sherman halted his laughter when he heard another set of giggles. He looked at Levy, sizing her up. She was taller than the other girl that he just met and looked a little different.

“They aren’t identical?” Sherman asked Carmilla and Laura.

“No, they don’t look the same.” Laura answered and Sherman released a heavy sigh of relief.

“Oh, thank goodness.” Sherman said, squeezing Carmilla’s shoulder, “I was dreading getting them mixed up or something!” he turned his gaze back to the younger girl, “And you must be Levy then.” He deduced and she simply nodded at him. Sherman quickly released Carmilla and gestured for the other twin to enter the house. “Come on in; your sister’s in there too.” Levy smiled and quietly shuffled herself into the cottage. The three adults watched her go in before they followed suit.

The cottage, itself, was pretty sizeable; just enough room for a small family. When you entered the space, you were immediately walking into the living room. There was an open concept kitchen/dining area to the right, and a hallway with three doors on the left. Just passed the kitchen, there was an additional hallway, but you couldn’t see where it led from the entrance.

Levy walked into the living room and saw a small flat screen TV, mounted on the only small wall that separated the living room from the kitchen/dining area. There was a beige suede “L” shaped couch across from the TV, and a fireplace parallel to the entrance of the cottage. Levy thought it looked really comforting but she still felt like she was intruding on an intimate space. She felt a hand come up to her left shoulder, causing her to jump a little. It was just Laura, and she sighed.

“It’s okay.” The journalist reassured her.

“Hey, guys?!” they all heard Cohen yell, from somewhere in the house. The sound was muffled, so she was in a room someplace. Sherman, Laura and Levy looked around from their spots in the living room and Carmilla rolled her eyes.

“Where are you, Poptart?!” the vampire yelled back.

“I found the bathroom,” Cohen answered, “but there ain’t no toilet paper up in here!” Levy laughed out loud and Sherman quickly ran to a small closet, next to the kitchen. He shuffled around in there for less than a minute and came back to the living area, holding four rolls of toilet paper. He tossed them at Carmilla and she caught all four of them without flinching once.

“Can ya bring those to her?” he asked and the vampire nodded as she brushed passed him. She walked through the kitchen and into the hallway that wasn’t quite visible from the front of the house. Once the vampire was out of sight, Sherman turned his attention to Laura and Levy. He reached for Levy’s suitcase and gestured for her to follow him. He began walking through the kitchen and Laura nudged Levy forward.

“Come on, Lev. Don’t be nervous.” Laura said, guiding the teen by holding her shoulders as they walked in the same direction as Sherman.

“Easy for you to say; he’s not new to you.” Levy said, blatantly. Laura smiled sympathetically.

“I know but I’m kind of nervous too.”

“About what?”

“Well,” Laura began, “he’s a little awkward and it takes him a little while to get used to new things. For the last six years, it’s just been my dad, Carm and myself. This is a new thing for everyone, Lev; trust me.” Levy hummed in understanding.

“I guess.” They walked into the hallway, behind the kitchen and Levy noticed more doors. Four of them, to be exact. Two on the left and two on the right. Sherman pointed to the doors on the left first.

“These ones are the closet and the bathroom.” He then gestured to the other doors on the right, “And these are your rooms. Laura and Carm usually stay in the one on the end, so you and your sister can stay in this one.” He turned to Laura and Levy, smiling as he turned the door’s handle, “It’s directly across from the bathroom, so...yeah, that works.” When the door opened, Cohen was already sprawled out on the bed next to Carmilla. It was a queen-sized mattress that nearly touched both sides of the rectangular room. There was a small desk with a lamp, across from the bed and a small window across from the entrance. It had blue curtains that were pulled apart, letting sunlight into the rather dim room. Laura laughed, watching Carmilla and Cohen lazily laid out on the bed.

“If you wanna be in this room with them, that’s fine.” Laura teased as she released Levy’s shoulder to take her bags into the other room. Immediately, Carmilla jumped off of the bed and made her way to the door.

“No way, cupcake!” she said, disappearing to the left.

Now it was just Levy and Sherman, standing awkwardly in the doorway with Cohen laid out on the bed. Sherman looked over at Levy and gave her a soft smile. She could only return it as she noticed how his eyes were very similar to Laura’s; full of warmth.

“So, uh…” the man began, shrugging his shoulders, “I know it’s not much room and all, but the bed that was here before was too small. I tossed it out and got this bigger mattress instead. It barely fit, but I hope it’s okay that you guys have to share.” Levy laughed at how nervous he sounded. Laura was right; everyone was nervous. “Laura said there was two of ya, so I needed to make some adjustments.”

“Don’t worry,” Levy reassured him, “I’ve had to share most of my things and a womb with her, I’m good.” This made Sherman chuckle, “It’s awesome. Thanks Mr. Hollis.”

“Just call me Sherman, kid.” He turned his attention to the other twin who was on the bed, “Enjoying yourself, Cohen?” she offered a thumbs up without opening her eyes.

“Totes!” Sherman nodded and turned back to Levy.

“You girls just get settled in, and stuff. If Laura asks, I’m just gonna get started on dinner.” Levy nodded and he patted her on her shoulder as he made his way out of the room. When he was gone Levy sighed and kicked her suitcase closer to the desk. She then walked over to the bed and laid down, next to her twin.

“So, what do you think?” Levy asked. She felt the bed shift and Cohen sat up.

“About the cottage or about Laura’s dad?”

“Both, I guess.”

“Well,” Cohen started, “He’s really awkward, but nice. I mean, he bought this super comfy and super huge bed just for us to have. I totally thought we’d be on a couch or in sleeping bags.” Levy nodded.

“Yeah, same. It was really thoughtful.” The twins had never experienced hospitality like this. Well, that was a lie; they always had five-star rooms in hotels and the best servants that anyone could ask for. All that, however, was professionalism; nothing about nurturing or caring. The hospitality of Sherman was more than they’d ever received, in a family-sense. They didn’t know if they should do something for him or not. Suddenly, Levy had an idea. “Let’s help him make dinner!” Levy suggested and Cohen smiled.

“Right behind you, broski.” And with that, the twins made their way to the kitchen.

 

-Laura and Carmilla’s Room (Cottage)-

 

The room that Carm and Laura shared, at the cottage, was always the same. They had a single bed, a dresser, and a small desk. They didn’t mind the small bed for obvious reasons. Laura was unpacking all of their things as Carmilla set up their bed with the sheets that Sherman had left for them.

“It’s so sweet that he got them a new mattress,” Laura said, hanging up one of Carmilla’s sweaters.

“Yeah, he is quite the charmer.” Carmilla agreed, fluffing their pillows. “I’m kind of pissed that he didn’t make _our_ bed, but it is nice that he did it for the girls.” Laura shook her head and tossed a pair of socks at her girlfriend.

“Stop being lazy and do your job, woman.” Carmilla scoffed and went to grab Laura from behind. In doing so, Laura started to giggle as Carm tossed her onto the bed. Laura was still laughing when the vampire began to straddle her. The look in her eyes was less than innocent and Laura gave her a glare. “Don’t you da – CARM!” the raven-haired woman began assaulting the journalist’s sides with vigorous tickles and Laura was in tears.

“Take it back!” Carmilla ordered but Laura couldn’t stop laughing. The vampire could hear Laura trying to say something through her laughter, “What was that? Did you take it back?”

“Not lazy! You – HAHA! You’re not la – zy!” Carm lifted her hands, in surrender and got off of her. Laura rolled over and glared at her girlfriend. “You suck.”

“I could, but the girls are just in the next room.” Laura’s face, which was already flushed, got impossibly more red.

“CARM!”

After finally setting up their room, the way that they liked it, Carmilla and Laura decided to ask the girls if they wanted to go for a walk near the lake. They went to the girls’ room but saw that the door was open and the suitcases were untouched.

“Where the hell are they?” Carm asked.

“Watching TV, maybe.” Laura replied, joining their hands together and walked towards the kitchen. The couple walked, hand in hand, towards the kitchen area. They looked around every corner just to be sure that the girls weren’t causing trouble. They still hadn’t found them until they reached the kitchen. “Hey Dad, where’s –!” Laura cut herself off when she saw Sherman stirring something on the stove while Cohen and Levy were doing their own thing on the kitchen table. All three of them looked focused and wore frilly aprons. Carmilla and Laura smiled, watching them work.

“How’re you guys doing, over there?” Sherman said, never taking his eyes off of what he was doing.

“Good!” Levy said, chopping vegetables like a pro. Cohen was massaging some seasoning, a little too aggressively, into what looked like some ground beef.

“Put them to work already, Sherman?” Carmilla asked, “I’m impressed.” The man chuckled and looked up at the couple.

“Nah, they offered to help.” He told them, “I insisted on doing it, on my own, but they wanted to help out.” Laura laughed.

“Couldn’t say no, huh Dad?”

“Obviously not.” He stopped stirring his creation and put a lid on the pot before placing it on a burner that wasn’t hot. “We’re making shepherd’s pie, for dinner.” He informed them and Laura hummed in response. That was always one of her favourites growing up.

The vampire asked the girls if they wanted to join them on a walk and they said that they’d go after dinner. Sherman told the couple to go for their walk and promised them that dinner would be in the oven in no time. Carmilla and Laura then began walking through the house, to the backyard. They always began their fall walk out back. Carmilla closed the door behind them, once they exited and couldn’t help but notice the look on Laura’s face.

“What are you thinking about now, creampuff?” she asked, intertwining their hands together.

“Should we leave them with him? I don’t want him to get overwhelmed.”

“He won’t be, cupcake,” Carm reassured, “He’s been a parent for quite a long time. I’m sure he can handle two, practically old enough, teens. Besides,” she reasoned, “they aren’t too much of troublemakers anyway.” Laura raised an eyebrow at Carmilla.

“So, we aren’t going to acknowledge the incident with the neighbour’s dog?” Laura inquired as the vampire rolled her eyes, “What about the runaway mini-jeep at Wal-Mart? OR the call from the school that Lev picked a fight with a grade 12?” It, truly, had been an eventful few weeks, and they were slowly realizing that raising the girls wouldn’t be as easy as they had originally thought.

“All those stories, without context, sound bad but we know they have good intentions.” Carmilla argued, on behalf of the girls. “For the record, I didn’t know that Cohen was afraid of dogs or that the miniature cars for display in Wal-Mart have working batteries in them.” The journalist glared at her girlfriend.

“Carm –!”

“Relax, Hollis; the Twerps are gonna be fine.” The vampire said, kissing Laura’s temple. She then tugged the journalist with her, towards their usual route.

 

-Two Hours Later-

 

After their pretty long walk, Laura and Carmilla came back to the cottage as Sherman was finishing up with the final preparations of their meal. When they re-entered the cottage, they headed to the living room, to watch some TV. Laura smiled, softly, when she saw Cohen and Levy asleep on the carpet with the TV on some random cartoon channel. She felt her heartwarming, just seeing them asleep with such peaceful expressions lacing their features. Sherman suddenly appeared with a thin blanket, making his way to the twins and carefully draping the blanket over them. He said that they were pretty tired once the food was placed in the oven and he sent them away to watch some TV. Carmilla laughed and carefully made her way around the sleeping twins to sit on the couch. Laura took out her phone and snapped some pictures of the entire scene; Carmilla on the couch while Levy and Cohen were passed out on the floor. Once she was satisfied with her photos, Laura followed Sherman into the dining area so that she could help set up the table.

Sherman had already started setting the table so all Laura had to do was set up some napkins and cutlery. She began to set down the glasses when her father decided to start a conversation.

“So how are you feeling, pumpkin?” Sherman asked, as he brought the shepherd’s pie to the table. Caught off guard by the question, Laura turned to face him.

“About what, dad?”

“This whole…thing with the twins.” he asked her, shrugging his shoulders and setting down the serving tray, in the middle of the dining table. “You know – being a parent.” If Laura was sipping on a drink, she probably would have done a spit-take. She settled, instead, for a scoff and a shake of her head.

“I wouldn’t be so quick to call myself a ‘parent’ yet, but I’m good.” Laura responded, switching her task to arranging the forks. “They are certainly testing my abilities, but…Honestly dad? It’s been just over a month and I can’t imagine my life without them in it. It’s strange like…I can’t explain it.” Sherman chuckled as Laura was at a loss for words, which doesn’t happen often.

“Well, I’d disagree about the whole ‘not calling yourself a parent’ thing, because you’re doing it; you’re going through the motions.” He reassured her. All Laura could do was just nod at that statement because – well – he was right. Levy and Cohen lived under her and Carm’s roof. Her and Carm were now a source of stability and security that, as it seemed, the twins had never been used to. They have said, repeatedly over the past few weeks, that they probably haven’t been heard by their parents often. Laura is, in fact, quite proud of how the twins are starting to ask for advice. Just the other day, Levy showed up in Laura and Carm’s room to ask the journalist’s advice on her career path, for a class reflection paper. Additionally, LaF had shared that Carm had been listening to Cohen practice her classical music, for band. They mentioned that Cohen’s main reasoning for asking Carm for help was: ‘old people like this stuff, and at 340, Carmie is perfect!’. They were slowly becoming a weird little family – that much was true – but Laura was very reluctant to call it that.

“But like you said, dad, I skipped all the steps.” She said, turning to face him, “The bonding isn’t innate like it should be.” Sherman sensed her discomfort. He knew that Laura was an accommodating individual, but she was not used to all this ‘modern family’ stuff. It was just him and her for a long time, with his own close-knit family tied in. He had talked to Carmilla before, over some beer (and on her side; blood) and he knows that she is familiar with a blended family, made up of individuals who aren’t related by DNA. He knows that his daughter should discuss that with Carmilla, now that they have two humans under their care, who had another life before them. Sherman also knows that his daughter wants the closeness of a family that probably has something to do with her own mother leaving them behind, when she was younger.

“I see. So, you’re not going to call yourself a parent until…it’s _apparent_ …from the kids?” He started to chuckle at his own joke and Laura couldn’t help but give in and laugh with him. This man was truly wonderful and she could only hope that, one day, her and the twins could have these moments with her and Carm.

“Har-har.” She said, her laughter slowly dying down. “But yeah, I don’t want them to feel like they _have_ to like me.” She admitted, “What, with all that happened with Carm and Levy, I don’t want to have a fight like that at all.” Sherman nodded and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“I mean you can try to avoid conflict but sometimes it’s what you need to move forward.” Sherman told her, “I never intended to come off as overprotective or paranoid, with you, but until we addressed that it wouldn’t have resolved itself.”

“That’s true.” Laura agreed. Her old man was wise beyond his rustic demeanor and surface-level stubbornness. “Thanks, dad.”

“So…what about Carm?" He asked, equally as concerned for the vampire. "How’s she handling them?” before Laura could answer him, she heard someone fall off of the couch with a thud. The journalist briskly walked to the entrance of the den and smiled when she saw Cohen in a giggling fit at Carm’s feet.

“Cohen, I swear if you try to poke my fangs again, I will bite off your finger.” She looked intimidating but Cohen just continued to laugh and tried to poke her fangs again. In one swift movement, Carmilla grabbed Cohen by her feet and hung her upside down, using her vampire strength with ease. At this point, Levy had woken up and shook her head, ignoring the scene in front of her in order to change the channel on the television. Laura shook her head as she made her way back to the dining table. Her father raised a questioning eyebrow at her and she just smiled.

“Honestly, Dad? I think she loves it.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hollis holidays continue as Thanksgiving dinner is about to be celebrated by Laura and her relatives! Will the twins be okay? Will Laura hyperventilate? Will Carm sass someone out? Find out next on this thing I've called a fanfic!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't updated yet; just working on some plots and stuff for this. In the meantime: More cute things - More of the Hollis family - A little drama, but just a sprinkle. Part 2/3 for the Thanksgiving bit!

-Sherman Hollis’ Cottage-

 

It was Sunday now, the day after actual Thanksgiving. Sherman decided to celebrate the holiday with his family today, as per Laura’s advice. She wanted the girls to settle in, with Sherman, before they had to be introduced to Laura’s extended family. Laura was dreading the impending interaction between the twins and her dad’s family, much to Sherman’s knowledge.

The usual Hollis holiday crowd consisted of Sherman’s mother, Geraldine, and the families of his siblings, Gwendolyn, Helen and Jameson. Laura’s Aunt Gwen had no children and was one of those ‘travel the world’ types. She usually brought some really cool gifts and would talk to Carmilla about the wonders of travelling. Uncle James (or Jim) was divorced but always brought his kids, Jamie and Samantha, to important holidays. At the ages of 30 and 26, Laura’s cousins weren’t married but Jamie had a child with one of his former girlfriends. Since winning custody of her, Jamie was bringing his 3-year-old daughter, Alexandra, to Thanksgiving. Samantha had started seeing a nice man named Leon. Unfortunately, he wasn't coming because he had to visit family in Hawaii so Samantha promised that he'd be here for Christmas. All of this was nice and dandy, but Laura really dreaded her Aunt Helen.

Helen is a vile woman who always picks on Carmilla for being a ‘minion of Satan’. She also picks on her for not being a man, of course. Helen's husband, Richard, hadn’t divorced her, but ended up getting deported back to Russia. No one remembers what happened exactly, and no one wanted to ask. Richard and Helen had a daughter, named Karen (also 26), who was engaged to a trans man named Jared. No one dared to tell Helen that Jared used to be a woman solely based on how she handled Laura’s coming out, back in high school.

 

-Laura’s Childhood Home…like…10 years ago-

 

_“You can do this, Laura!” the tiny blonde said to herself, into her full-length mirror. Young Laura was going to come out to her entire family, tonight, and she was preparing herself for the inevitable. She had already informed her lovely father, and her cousins, but she thought that tonight would be the perfect time to tell the rest of her family. It was really hard to give yourself a life-altering pep-talk in a mirror covered in Buffy, Doctor Who, Harry Potter and Powerpuff Girls stickers._

_“Knock, Knock, bitch.” Laura screeched at the sudden feminine voice. She whirled around to see who had opened her door. She was relieved to see Karen, Samantha and Jamie; her amazing cousins. She really wished that they would actually knock instead of just saying it._

_“Karen, you should really learn to knock.” Laura chastised. Karen just shrugged._

_“I mean, I should,” Karen replied, running a hand through her pink hair, “but it’s not fun.” Laura laughed, running over toward her doorframe where her cousins stood. She engulfed them all into a tight hug and they all groaned._

_“Why is she like thiiiiiis?” Jamie whined, but Laura just hugged them tighter._

_“Shut up, Jamie.” Samantha said, her brown hair draping over her face. She then turned to face Laura fully, and smiled. “So, you ready?” Laura inhaled sharply and puffed out her chest. She was the shortest of the bunch, but she was twice as intimidating._

_And honestly?_

_She felt ready._

_She could do this._

_She was going to do this!_

_Hell Yeah! Badass Bitch Laura is-a-comin’ through!_

_“Nope.” Laura sighed, her chest visibly deflating and her shoulders slumping. “Not even close.” The poor tiny gay was defeated and she waddled over to her bed and fell onto it, face first. Jamie was the first to attempt consoling her. He sat beside her limp frame and slapped her on her shoulder blades, ignoring her complaint._

_“Oh, come on, Lowie!” Jamie said, ruffling her hair. “It was easy when you came out to me, remember? You’re gonna rock it!” Laura immediately sat up only to glare at the boy._

_“You only found out because I fell asleep on your living room couch, while watching you play Minecraft, and my phone fell out of my hands so you saw my tumblr!” Laura accused while her cousins laughed as a taunting collective. Jamie raised his arms up, in defence, but he couldn’t wipe the smirk off of his face. The tiny blonde folded her arms over her chest and pouted._

_“Guys, you’re making this too much of a big deal.” Karen told her cousins, “Laura, you don’t have to do this.” The pink-haired girl said, resting her hand on the tiny blonde’s shoulder._

_“Yeah, Lowie,” Samantha agreed, “you don’t have to do this now. You can totally come out to everyone one day at a time. We’ll be here for you, no matter what.” Laura looked around at her cousins, who were pretty much as close to siblings as she could possibly get. Sure, they all lived miles away from one another, but it didn’t matter; Facebook group chats were their saving grace. Laura couldn’t be more thankful for her little family and desperately wanted everyone she loved to be apart of her journey._

_She wanted to tell everyone she loved._

_And she loved the Hollis family._

_“I’m doing this, guys.” Laura said, standing up and clenching her fists. “I’m doing this, and I’m doing this tonight!”_

_-Like…Four Hours Later-_

_CRASH!_

_Another perfectly good glass was unceremoniously tossed at the wall, just beyond Sherman and Jim’s heads. Dinner was going well, until Laura made her little announcement. Her grandmother and Aunt Gwen got up to hug her and tell her they loved her, Uncle Jim told her that she had to marry a woman who could beat him in an arm-wrestling match, and her aunt Helen…_

_CRASH!_

_“SHERMAN! HOW COULD YOU?!” the middle-aged hag cried, just flailing her arms around while throwing random objects._

_“HOW COULD I WHAT?” Sherman countered, “LOVE MY DAUGHTER?! Laura is my entire world, Helen! This thing – her liking girls does not mean I’m going to love her any less!”_

_“SHE’S NEVER GOING TO MAKE IT TO HEAVEN, SLEEPING AROUND WITH WOMEN!” Helen shouted, picking up something from the table._

_CRASH!_

_This time, it was one of those tiny plates, for teacups, that managed to be brutally murdered right in front of Samantha and Grandma Geraldine. The brunette cocked her head, ever so slightly, to just stare at how calm her grandmother was being. Grandma Gerry just sat, hands on her lap, with her eyes closed. Sam momentarily thought that she might have been dead. Sensing Sam’s concern, Karen, who was sitting on the other side of Grandma, poked her on her shoulder. The elderly woman grunted and went back to napping at the dinner table._

_Sitting on Karen’s right, was Laura. The tiny blonde just sat, frozen, wondering what the Hell was going on. One minute, she was receiving praise, and the next thing she knew, Aunt Helen was exploding on everyone._

_“Your mom’s crazy, Karen.” Samantha told her cousin, looking passed Grandma Gerry. Karen just nodded and sat up straighter._

_“I’m never telling her I’m pansexual.” The pink-haired girl concluded. Laura shrugged her shoulders and patted her sad cousin on the back. The tiny blonde couldn't agree more on that front; Karen's first priority is to protect herself from being bludgeoned and pelted with tasteful holiday ceramics._

_“Good idea.” said Laura._

_While Karen and Laura continued to be upset, the craziness around them had yet to subside. Aunt Gwen was trying to encourage her siblings to meditate together, Uncle Jim was picking up all the debris and Sherman continued to be in a shouting match against Helen. Jamie just sighed at his family, head buried in his palms._

_“Merry Christmas, everyone.”_ _the teenaged boy declared, refocusing his attention towards finishing his mashed potatoes._

 

-Present Day-

 

Most of the time, everyone just ignored Helen, but knowing that she was probably going to pick on the twins next was absolutely mortifying for Laura to think about. It was so mortifying that she didn’t even register Levy’s voice, as she was sitting on a lawn chair by the lake, before it was too late.

“LAURA!” Levy shouted. As Laura finally turned around, her left cheek was roughly acquainted with a soccer ball. The force was not enough to knock her off of the chair but it was enough to send her sunglasses flying off of her face. She closed her eyes, at the pain, and heard the shuffling of the grass as the twins ended up at her side.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry Laurie!” Cohen said, helping the journalist wipe the dirt from the ball off of her face. The girls had decided to play outside, while Carmilla and Sherman went to the nearby farm to get ‘good meat’ for the grill. With absolutely no interest in the purchasing of meat, in the very place that the animals were slaughtered, Laura decided to stay back and join the girls outside. It was nice and sunny, not too cold at all. When the girls said that they were going to play soccer, she should have placed her chair further away from where they were.

“It’s okay, Cohen.” Laura reassured the shorter blonde, still wincing in shock more than pain. “It’s not the first time I’ve gotten a ball to the face.” Before realizing her poor choice of words, Levy piped up.

“I thought you were a gold star lesbian.” At her sister’s statement, Cohen erupted into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Levy tried to keep her smirk but her own laughter broke its way through her resolve. Laura rolled her eyes.

“Shut up, that’s so not what I meant.” Laura couldn’t help but give in to their laughter and soon they were all giggling, like maniacs.

“No, but seriously,” Cohen said, “how did you not hear us?”

“Yeah,” Levy agreed, “I was screaming at you when the ball was still in the air!” the taller twin then looked to her sister. “That was a great kick, by the way, Coco.”

“Thanks, Lev!” Cohen said with pride. The short blonde adjusted her glasses before turning towards Laura. “Are you good, Laura? You didn’t even budge until the ball hit you upside the face.” Laura shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. Despite her unwillingness to answer them, the twins crossed their arms and stared at her with intent.

“You keep telling us to tell you if something’s wrong.” Levy pried. Cohen just puffed out her chest and pointed at Levy.

“What she just said.”

“I don’t know,” Laura said, giving into their inquiry, “I think I’m just nervous for you guys to meet my Aunt Helen.”

“Is that the one that Carmilla said went to the sex toy convention?” Cohen asked, causing Laura’s eyes to bulge out of their sockets.

“She went where now?!” Laura asked. The twins didn’t acknowledge the woman’s concern.

“No, her Aunt Gwen is the one who does the world travelling.” Levy corrected, “Her Aunt Helen is supposedly, according to Carm, the ‘biggest ignoramus’ she has ever had the displeasure of meeting, in all her 340 years of life.”

“Ah,” Cohen said, remembering the name, “right!” Laura tried to remember when exactly Carmilla had been able to talk to the girls alone since the vampire was either just with Laura or everyone in the cottage hung out together. Laura deduced that Carm may have gossiped about her family well in advance of this trip.

“Anyway,” Levy said, ignoring Laura’s expression and reverting conversation back to Laura’s nerves, “Carm warned us about Helen. We got this.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about us!” Cohen engulfed the journalist into a tight hug, reassuring her that they would be fine. Laura sighed and wrapped an arm around Cohen’s small frame while pulling Levy into the embrace as well.

All things considered, Laura hoped that dinner would go well tonight.

 

-About Four Hours Later-

 

Most of the family had started to arrive. Jared and Karen were the first guests, and they made themselves at home in the living room. Next to make an appearance was Jamie and Alexandra. The poor girl was sound asleep, upon their arrival, so Sherman let her sleep in the twin’s room. Uncle Jim was outside, finishing his cigarette, when Samantha and Gwen pulled up in a red convertible. They had been travelling in South Africa together, so they had just arrived from the airport. Those three started to catch up, before re-entering the cottage.

While Laura was talking to Jamie, Jared and Karen, Carmilla was in her and Laura’s room, prepping the girls for their big entrance. They had just woken up, from an afternoon nap, and Carmilla laughed internally because they took naps like babies. She couldn’t blame them though; it was their vacation after all.

The vampire was enjoying her weekend, as it gave her the chance to sleep in with Laura wrapped up in her arms. She also missed seeing Sherman, who was slowly becoming a father figure to her. This weekend also gave her some important bonding time with the twins.

Carmilla got along fine with the twerps; they always entertained her. In turn, she believed that the twins were very intrigued about her tales of centuries ago, where things like Wi-Fi and memes were not yet known to the world.

“Okay,” the vampire said, finishing up the half-up style braid in Cohen’s hair. “that should do it!” despite Carmilla’s demeanor, she was the one who enjoyed makeup, hairstyles and fashion. She’d never admit such, if cornered, but she liked to think of it as a hidden talent. Over the years, of her undead life, the vampire would have to blend in with her surroundings. Dressing for the times was necessary and caused minimal suspicion. She smiled as Cohen looked at her reflection in the mirror. Cohen felt dressed to impress in a loose-fitted wool sweater. She cut it, like a crop top, and light-grey leggings and a pair of beige slip-on loafers.

“Thanks, Carmie!” Cohen squealed, as the vampire winced at the nickname, “It looks great!” the short-haired blonde then turned around to face her sibling who was lounging on Carmilla’s side of the bed. Levy was casually dressed in a black tank-top, grey sweatpants, a green flannel, and pair of black Birkenstocks. Her hair was still kind of wet, from a shower, but she was going to leave it down anyway. “Thanks for coordinating my outfit.” Cohen thanked once more as Carmilla responded with a scoff.

“I don’t think a red T-shirt that reads ‘bikini inspector’ was going to impress anyone, Buttercup.” The vampire said, checking out her own reflection. She opted for a form-fitting black long-sleeve. She rolled up the sleeves and tucked it into a pair of worn out dark-blue jeans. She topped off her look with some white Chuck Taylor’s that were actually Laura’s, but she didn’t give a damn.

“I think the ‘bikini inspector’ shirt would have been a great hit.” Levy contested, sliding herself off of the bed. Carmilla just shook her head.

“I don’t think you realize how important it is, for the Cupcake, that you guys are liked by her family.” Carmilla said, turning to face the twin who shared her last name.

“Then explain it to us, mortals, oh mistress of mystery.” Levy groaned, attempting to walk around Carmilla. The vampire hand to hand it to the teen; Levy’s snark levels could rival her own. Despite what was happening, Carmilla was not growing tired of Levy’s come and go again sass and was slowly realizing that the banter was fun. Using her vampire agility, Carmilla moved in front of the taller twin, blocking her from advancing any further.  Levy sighed and waited for her lecture.

“Before she left for university, all Laura had was her dad and his family.” Carmilla said, solemnly. “It’s all she had known and had for a long time. Her family, although kind of nutty and strange, is highly important to her. The Hollis clan is notoriously close.” Carmilla paused, watching the girls and making sure they were actually listening. Satisfied with their lack of questions, sighs and groans, the vampire continued. “Subsequently, her love for me, and even you two, is something that she wants to share with them. You guys getting along with everyone downstairs would mean the world to her.”

“But…” Cohen began, with a shaky voice, “what if they just don’t like us?”

“Then that’s on them.” Carmilla turned to face the shorter girl and placed a hand on her cheek. Cohen sighed, closed her eyes, and tilted her face further into the vampire’s palm. If Carmilla had a working one, she knew that her heart would be beating quite fast. She had always been confused at what Laura made her feel, but the twins had a different effect on her. She didn’t want to voice it, but her adoration for Cohen, an annoying little twerp, was getting dangerously high. “Buttercup, anyone would be a fool to not like you. Even you over there, Cranks McGee.” All joking and attitude aside, Carmilla harboured a deep adoration for Levy as well. She felt the tug in her chest that told her to refer to them as ‘her children’ on a daily basis. They weren’t hers or Laura’s; not yet and maybe not ever. “My point is that you guys should try.” Carmilla sighed, pulling her hand away from Cohen’s face. “Please try tonight? Laura’s dad’s family is important.” Noticing the choice of words, Levy tilted her head to the side, in confusion. She adored Carmilla’s love for Laura and the cute notions that were being shared. However, it was rather strange, to her, that everything was in ownership of Laura’s father. The tiny journalist, herself, never spoke about a mother and Levy was curious. Also picking up on the wording, Cohen was the one who spoke.

“How come you keep saying ‘Laura’s dad’s family’?” the spectacled twin inquired, “Where’s her mom?” Carmilla froze at the question. She knew all about the notorious Phoebe Hollis and answering the twins would be easy. However, Phoebe’s story was not something that Carmilla felt comfortable disclosing.

“I’m not comfortable with telling you about Laura’s mother, but long story short, the broad up and left.” Carmilla said, slightly harsher than she intended to have sounded. Phoebe Hollis leaving Laura and her father was a story that should not have to be told because no one should have abandoned them in the first place. The raven-haired woman took a deep breath before continuing. “Don’t ask me anything more about it, okay? You have every right to ask, but I have no right to tell you. If you want the story, you’ll have to talk to Laura herself. Got it, Buttercup? Poptart?” the twins merely nodded and kept silent about this revelation. They wanted to know more, but they respected Carmilla immensely.

“Okay.” Both girls promised. Before Carmilla could leave, she felt two sets of arms wrap around her, holding her in place. She closed her eyes and relished in the feeling of having them with her.

She looked over at her bed, where her cell phone was. Neither Laura nor the twins knew this, but Mattie had been updating her on Doug and Artan's manhunt for Tobias.

Carmilla was going to do everything in her power to keep Laura and the twins safe.

She would kill again, if she had to.

 

-Meanwhile-

 

“So how are you doing, Lowie?” a tall young man, with short light brown hair asked, wrapping an arm around her. He was dressed in a white v-neck t-shirt and some tattered baby blue jeans. Laura smiled, sinking into his embrace.

“I’m doing great, Jamie!” Laura exclaimed, “I’m so glad you and Alex could make it up to the cottage, this year.” He smiled down at her.

“Well, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I still feel bad for not coming to last year’s Thanksgiving.” Jamie sighed, looking down at his feet.

“Jamie,” Laura began, placing a hand on his shoulder, “you were going through the loss of your girlfriend. On top of that, you were fighting her parents for custody of Alexandra. It’s totally understandable that you couldn’t make it.” Jamie smiled at his cousin. She was always so quick to forgive. He had felt horrible, but that was only because he knew how much family holidays meant to everyone in his family. Before he could say anything else, Samantha, Aunt Gwen and Uncle Jim entered the cottage in a fit of laughter.

“You’re out to lunch, Jimbo!” Gwen stated, shucking off her heels and dramatically waving her silk scarf. Samantha continued to laugh, while Uncle Jim just shook his head.

“What’s all the ruckus, now?” Sherman said, emerging from the kitchen area. He was carrying out some appetizers to the living room.

“Big man thinks he can beat Carmilla in chess.” Samantha stated, making her way towards Laura and Jamie. It had been an odd tradition, for Jim and Carmilla, to play some sort of game in order to declare their dominance. It was mostly for Jim though, Carmilla just liked entertaining the Hollis clan.

“In your weird old man dreams,” Jamie said to his father, “that woman’s been alive, playing chess, for centuries.”

“Bet she hasn’t played against a person like me!”

“yeah; A person who can’t fucking zip up his fly!” Karen piped up, from her spot on the living room couch. The entire family, including her guest and fiancé Jared, indulged in laughter as Uncle Jim scrambled to zip up his pants.

Carmilla and the twins had made it to the kitchen and were quietly observing the loud and rambunctious family in front of them. The twins were visibly nervous but Carmilla placed her hands on their backs, softly encouraging them to inch forward. Aunt Helen and Grandma Gerry still had yet to make an appearance, so the vampire thought that it would be the most opportune time to introduce the girls. The three of them tried to make a subtle entrance however Sherman turned around and was ecstatic at the sight of the twins.

“Carmilla! Bring the girls over here!” he shouted. Both girls tensed as they felt everyone’s eyes on them but once they saw Sherman and Laura’s warm smiles, they felt calm. The twins turned to face Carmilla and the vampire just offered a shrug and one of her famous smirks. Cohen and Levy cautiously approached Laura but Sherman was quick to wrap his arms around them, hugging them to each of his sides. Laura smiled and began the introductions.

“Everybody, this is Cohen and Levy.” Laura stated proudly, gesturing to the girls at Sherman’s sides. “They are the twins that Carm and I have taken in.” the twins each gave soft smiles at all the unnamed faces that looked towards them. Jamie and Jared nodded their heads while Karen, Samantha and Aunt Gwen waved enthusiastically. Before anyone could break the awkward silence, Uncle Jim walked towards the girls and held out his hands for a shake.

“Do any of you girls think you can beat me in chess?” he asked, and laughter erupted from around the room. Smiling, the twins accepted his handshake and the room felt less awkward. “I’m Laura’s Uncle Jim, by the way.”

 

-An Hour Later-

 

The cottage was beginning to feel like a regular holiday party. Once everyone had officially introduced themselves to the twins, Sherman fetched a chess set from somewhere in the shed out back. Cohen had agreed to play against Uncle Jim in a game before the rugged man took on Carmilla. The vampire didn’t mind stalling; she was grateful that she wouldn’t have to listen to Jim’s shitty smack-talk while biting her own tongue because Laura told her she was too mean for a Hollis. Currently, the vampire nursed a glass of blood while sat beside Jamie as they watched Cohen beat an old man at chess. Carmilla admitted she was rather impressed.

“Did you teach her how to play?” Jamie asked the vampire. “She’s kicking my dad’s ass.” Carmilla just shook her head.

“No.” she answered as Jim groaned when Cohen had successfully advanced more of her crucial pieces. The raven-haired woman leaned in closer to Jamie and said, “To be honest, I don’t even think she knows how this game works.”

“Wait, so what now?” Cohen said as she leapt another one of her pawns over one of Jim’s, unknowingly placing her one more move away from checkmate. “I’ve been playing this like checkers. Am I even winning? Can I leave?” the short-haired blonde asked causing Jamie and Carmilla to erupt into chuckles. Jim just sat, completely awestruck. Carmilla hadn’t ever beaten him this quickly. Jim ran both of his hands through his thinning grey hair, eyes bulging in complete and utter shock.

“H-How?!” he asked, completely perplexed at his impending loss to a 14-year-old girl, who apparently had never played the game before.

“Just go with the flow, Buttercup.” Carmilla encouraged, “Then you can be free.”

“Never mind,” Jim said, standing up, “I give. I need a beer or five.” Jamie and Carmilla continued to laugh while Cohen just sat completely confused at what just happened.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Laura was with Samantha, Karen and Levy, who had all volunteered to set up the dining table. It wasn’t too bad so far, in the young girl’s mind. Levy just listened to them gossip about stuff that had no relevance to her as she set up the plates. No one, aside from Laura, was really acknowledging her presence, so it was natural for her to almost drop a plate when Karen started talking to her.

“You okay, kid?” Karen asked, immediately steadying the girl. Levy didn’t make eye contact but nodded anyway.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just slipped.” Levy looked up at Laura, with pleading eyes. The older blonde stepped over to her and repeated her cousin’s question.

“Karen wanted to know how your finding grade 10.” The journalist told Levy, her hand resting gingerly on the girl’s nervous shoulders.

“Oh, um, it’s okay.” Levy answered, awkwardly. Before anything more excruciating occurred, Cohen came bounding into the area with a weird look on her face. The awkwardness in Levy’s gut was immediately disposed of, in favour of teasing her twin. “Why do you look like you just shit your pants?” Karen and Samantha laughed but before Laura could chastise the twins for swearing, Cohen announced one of Laura’s fears for the evening.

“Um, some cranky lady and some really old lady just came through.” All laughter had stopped and Laura inhaled a sharp breath. Her Aunt Helen had finally arrived.

“Fuck,” Karen stated, “my mom’s here.”

“But so is Grandma Gerry!” Samantha said, cheerfully, ushering Laura and the twins out to greet the new arrivals. Karen just shook her head and followed them out into the the living room. She didn't know what her mother would say, regarding the twins, but she hoped that her mother wouldn't be too harsh; they were just children after all. Then again, Laura was only 16 when her mother unleashed her wrath. Karen was incredibly thankful that this time they could legally hide behind their alcoholic beverages.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that the Thanksgiving weekend is a bit dragged out, but it's all necessary; I promise! This is all about family and backstory! Don't forget criticism and comments!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanksgiving part 3/3! Drama? Fights? Turkey? Who Knows?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick little chapter to wrap up the Thanksgiving thing. I'm truly sorry about not updating. School acceptances and rejections, people dying, new work projects...things were happening. BUT I promise to not forget about this story! I have BIG PLANS! ENJOY READING!

-1 year ago-

 

_All was quiet, if you were to look out onto the street, that night. It was mid-September, so the sun was still somewhat in the sky without it being a sunset. Actually, it wouldn’t matter if you were to look out onto this same street any other given day; it was boring. Nothing interesting ever occurred on their street because all that surrounded them was old retired people, millionaire entrepreneurs and a few swinger families (no matter how hard they tried to tell you that they weren’t). Even the swinger families were a bore._

_In short, there was never anything exciting around here._

_But that was just how it has always been._

_Levy sighed and went to sit in front of her mirror, waiting for the clock to strike 7:30 in the evening. Her mother liked to have guests over, on Fridays, so everyone needed to be punctual. 7:30 was the perfect time to allow room for guests to arrive early, before dinner was served at 8:15. Levy never had any idea who these people were nor how they knew her parents. She supposed that they were all business partners and alumni from college._

_Most of the guests for this evening, according to some of the household workers, were from Vancouver. Levy sat in front of her mirror puzzled. To her knowledge, her parents never went to Vancouver; neither for school nor for business. Alas, all she could do was sit in silence. Gloria and Terrance Scott are incredibly powerful people. They can command a room with their voices and mere presence. Levy had always wanted to do that. She wanted just as much power and control that her family portrayed. It wasn’t for money or for perks though._

_She wanted their confidence._

_“Miss Levy?” the blonde hears from her doorway. She swiftly swiveled around, in her chair, and offered a warm smile to one of their maids. She had no idea what this one’s name was but it hardly ever mattered._

_“Yes?” she replied, still a bit irked that she didn’t know this maid’s name. she didn’t know why it bothered her; her own parents never seemed to care. Why should she? The maid stood with near perfect posture and cleared her throat before answering._

_“Your mother wishes you down, in the study, for a moment.” And with that, the maid left without waiting for a response. It was quite known that Levy never put up a fight when it came to her parents; there would be no point in disagreeing with them._

_Their father, Terrance, was a rather eloquent and preppy businessman who seemed too happy._

_And then there was their mother… Gloria Scott._

_A menacingly talented woman; talented in the ways of psycho-manipulation and rudimentary blackmailing. Levy wasn’t sure if they actually shared any DNA at all, biologically or metaphorically._

_Levy had always witnessed Cohen getting the short end of the stick whenever she wanted to do something. Her sister loved the arts and was heartbroken when their mother stuck her into ballet and choir when she actually wanted musical theatre and hip hop. Naturally, Cohen was distraught and put up quite the battle. In the end, their parents waved around the ‘we are paying for it, so we get to choose’ card._

_Levy began to exit her room and make her way down the rather large mahogany staircase. Her footsteps echoed as her flip flops padded against the floor. Once she made it to the study, she saw her mother standing by the window, looking out towards the backyard terrace. Mother was already in her chosen dress of the evening; a simple red gown that flowed down to the floor. At this moment, Mother turned around, her face was caked with makeup and her earrings were obnoxiously dangly and studded with diamonds. Levy wondered if her earlobes were hurting._

_Mother smiled, noticing Levy, and began to walk towards her. The younger blonde could hear the heavy, and expensive, heels that were probably the Louboutin’s that arrived in the mail earlier. Thinking back to the length of her mother’s dress, Levy briefly wondered what the point of the shoes were if no one could see what they looked like under that ridiculous dress._

_Levy didn’t know what she actually expected, going downstairs, but the sentence that was about to escape her mother’s lips was not it._

_“Talk to your sister about a legitimate career choice, please and thank you.” Were the words that escaped mother’s lips. It was a command rather than a question but that was always expected in this home._

_“What did she tell you?” Levy asked, genuinely curious. The woman sighed and brushed some of her long blonde hair behind her ear, purposely showing off more of the diamond studded earrings._

_“Your father overheard that she wanted to become a choreographer.” The woman sputtered out, basically disgusted that she even thought about her daughter becoming an artist. Levy just shrugged._

_“So?” the young girl inquired, “She’s really good at ballet and could probably make a lot of money doing it.” The older woman scoffed and shook her head._

_“That’s what she thinks.” Mother laughed and just continued to shake her head. “Cohen’s never going to get anywhere with that stupid head of hers up in the clouds.”_

_As her mother exited the room, Levy couldn’t help but just stare after her. She was too mad and too weak to stand up to her mother in any capacity. Cohen was a very good dancer and was amazing at everything arts-related._ Mom wouldn’t know since she’s never seen any of Cohen’s performances _, Levy thought._

_But none of that mattered anymore._

_Not when money was stronger than confidence._

-Present Day-

 

“OW!” Levy cried, as little Alexandra accidentally pulled on her hair a little too hard. Jamie’s daughter had finally woken up from her nap. Well…Laura’s grandma Gerry demanded where she was and yanked her out of the bed. Levy had been tuning out everything after they met Aunt Helen, while allowing the young girl to play with her hair because _“it matches my dolly’s!”_ as Alexandra stated. Carmilla was right when she said that the woman was unbelievably disgusting. She blatantly said hi to everyone except for Laura and Carmilla. Laura looked sad and Carmilla, well, she darted out of the room anyway.

It was Sherman who had to introduce the twins and Aunt Helen’s reply was:

“Really? They let people like _them_ adopt? These poor girls are doomed.” And left the room. Levy and Cohen were steaming out of their ears but were quickly distracted by grandma Gerry realizing that she had _“two new great-grandbabies!”_ and threw her questionably strong arms excitedly around both of them.

Levy sighed, reminiscing about her previous flashback. She had no idea what prompted her to think about her God-awful mother, and how the wench didn’t support any of Cohen’s talents. Well, that’s untrue. Levy looked around at the people around her, in this small cottage. Sherman was probably in the kitchen, finishing up dinner, Laura was chatting with her cousins and everyone was enjoying being around one another. Sure, there was drama; but everyone still seemed so much closer than what Levy was used to. Parties, from her lived experiences, were usually doused in expensive cologne, fake smiles, mail ordered brides/gold diggers and business opportunities. Levy couldn’t help but find herself fascinated by regular family life. It was something she was going to have to adjust to, much like everything else her and her sister had to overcome.

Anyway, Levy was minding her own business on the couch, wedged in between Alexandra and Jim as they watched Cohen teach Jared how to pop n’ lock.

“I’m not sure my arm can bend that way.” Jared protested, worriedly, as Cohen shook her head.

“Nonsense” the blonde insisted, “I only hurt myself twice the last time I tried it.” Jared visibly gulped and hesitantly looked towards Karen for guidance. She was nursing a pretty full glass of wine next to Carmilla, in the kitchen, offering him a smile and a quick thumbs up in support.

As Cohen began to count down from four, Levy’s attention was diverted to a conversation happening behind her. She assumed the voices to be of Laura, Aunt Gwen, Aunt Helen, Samantha and Jamie. Their conversation sounded infinitely more interesting than watching her sister try to teach someone how to dance with their limbs.

“So, what are you going to do about the girls and their lack of a baptism, Laura?” Helen questioned, only to be aggressively hushed by Gwen.

“Helen! Stop talking! Instead, I’d like to learn more about this dance team that Cohen is apart of.” Gwen insisted as she rapidly changed the subject. Helen just groaned louder; she was not going to be silenced.

“Dance?!” Helen exclaimed, obviously disgusted out of her mind. Levy had half a mind to turn around and punch her, square in the mouth, but Alexandra was now sitting in her lap comfortably. “How does she expect to do anything with that?!” the taller twin quickly turned around, causing Alexandra to fall backwards a little.

“Hey!” the little girl protested. Her complaints went ignored, as Levy turned to tell off Aunt Helen. Much to her surprise, someone else beat her to the punch.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Laura huffed while everyone else looked shocked. “I’m fine with you being horrible to me, since it’s been going on for literal years!” she paused her rant for effect. “I’m less okay with you being rude to Carmilla however she could care less because she’s like 340 years old and has met worse people,” the vampire groaned into her hands, reaching for more wine as she listened to Laura bring up her age again. “The ONE THING that I will NOT accept is you speaking ill of these girls!” the tiny journalist trudged right up to Aunt Helen, pushing Jamie and Gwen to the side. She then proceeded to point her index finger directly at the woman quite menacingly. “The twins have been through enough, without having to worry about you being continuously judgemental and rude!” Laura lowered her hand, bringing it to her side, without tearing her eyes away from her aunt. Helen sported a perplexed expression and appeared as pale as snow. Laura was seething, face and chest tinted red from her outburst. “Cohen is a great dancer. I’ve only ever seen her dance in the kitchen, and that one time I came home early and saw her dancing in her underwear –!”

“Totally forgot about that.” Cohen mumbled, kind of embarrassed yet overjoyed at Laura defending her dreams.

“and I haven’t known them long enough, but I know that Cohen is driven and passionate about it! Goddamnit, I will support her until she tells me not to but even then, I probably won’t listen to that! I will be there if dancing is a success or a failure! I want to be able to say that I supported them! Unlike you, who never even showed up for any of Karen’s softball games because sports ‘make girls gay’! Well you know what? MAYBE I DON’T GIVE A FUCK!” There was a collective gasp across the whole cottage. Levy took the initiative to cover Alexandra’s little ears in case Laura decided to swear for the second time in her life. “This is their very first actual Thanksgiving, with a real family, and they deserve to have a good time, so do everyone a favour and keep your stupid, outdated, Botox-infused mouth shut!” Laura was panting, her eyes wild and her teeth barred.

Silence was all that followed.

Levy’s heart was racing. She couldn’t believe the words that came tumbling out of Laura’s mouth. She hadn’t heard anyone willingly support Cohen’s arts-based dreams; Laura hadn’t known them for all that long. Yet there stood Laura, standing up to the bully of the family because she was judging Cohen. Levy was certain that her heart could not swell enough for the journalist and decided that maybe, just maybe, she might get the female role model she had always wanted.

“Uh…” Sherman broke the silence, popping his head out from behind Karen and Carmilla. “Dinner’s ready now.”

 

-Five Minutes Later-

 

Slowly, everyone filed in to the dining area, where all the plates were set up just right. Everyone took their seats, except for Aunt Helen, who had escaped and said she was too tired. Karen walked her mother to the door while everyone just busied themselves with seating arrangements. Carmilla and Laura sat across from the twins and everyone else just sat in a random spot. Cohen could tell that Laura was still flustered about her rant.

“Hey, Laurie?” Cohen started, before being interrupted by Jim.

“Hey, Tiny Dancer,” he said in a gruff yet caring tone, “care to start off dinner for us?”

“What do I do?” Cohen asked, visibly confused. Everyone chuckled a little and Laura reached out for Cohen’s hand on the table.

“They want you to say grace.” The journalist explained. “You don’t have to –!”

“No, uh, I’ve seen movies. I got this.” Cohen insisted while Jim silently regretted his decision. “Um…okay. In the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit.” The small blonde said, adjusting her glasses and doing the sign of the cross. She had only ever witnessed it in exorcism movies and hoped that it looked right. Cohen cleared her throat, before starting off the prayer. “Um… S’up Jesus? How’s the family business?”

“Oh, crap.” Laura sighed. She then felt Carmilla squeeze her knee lightly. She looked over to her right, to see Carmilla trying to contain laughter.

“Don’t be rude, Cupcake; let her finish.” Laura rolled her eyes but conceded to Carm’s curiosity.

“…I guess, um, thanks for all this food that Sherman laboured over to make?” Cohen shook her head, realizing the fallacy in that statement. “That doesn’t really make sense. Forgive me, father, for I have only been in non-Catholic school. Um…OH WAIT!” she straightened her posture and closed her eyes tight, looking like she was about to actually pray. “Thanks for the Hollis family, the Karnstein family and all their friends. I know the vampires aren’t here, neither are the others, but thanks for everyone. I wanna give a bigger shout out to Laurie and Carm, who have welcomed us into their lives and saved us. They didn’t need to, but they did and I kind of love them for that. They are way better than our actual parents and I hope I never have to see those fools again because these fools are so much better.” Laura and Carmilla smiled wide, holding hands under the table. A few happy sighs and sniffs were heard from other members of the family. Levy was just trying not to choke on her water because Cohen did not know how prayers worked. Ignoring her twin, Cohen continued. “So yeah, that’s it. I don’t know how to end this group chat thing so Jesus; you can press end call or something. When you get this message, please don’t leave us on read. HALLELUJAH!”

“HALLELUJAH!” Carmilla, Karen and Jamie echoed with the biggest shit-eating grins on their faces. Uncle Jim, Sherman, Grandma Gerry and Gwen were desperately trying not to laugh while Levy was full-out dying of laughter. Laura sat across from her in second-hand embarrassment, but could not hide the smile on her face.

“That’s probably not considered a prayer, but it was so cute. I stand by it.” Samantha said, lifting her glass. “To family!” everyone raised their glasses, with the exception of Alexandra who raised her sippy cup.

“To family!” was echoed followed by the sounds of utensils finally being put to use. Everyone began to chat with one another but Laura looked around the table. She was sure that she had ruined to evening by chasing away Aunt Helen, but looking at the twins chatting with her cousins while Carm bantered with Jared was a sight that she would never tire of.

She was unsure about their situation a few times, but knew that this is what she was striving toward.

She and Carm were starting a family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with this shit show! I promise that the next few chapters will meet your Carmilla Family Fic Needs!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween's coming! What's about to go down???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a tiny bit more fluff before the drama. I also felt super horrible about the lack of updates, and decided to send the first part of the twins' next endeavor! Remember to play nice and enjoy the read!!

-The Hollis/Karnstein Apartment-

 

It was now Monday, one week before Halloween. Laura and Carmilla had invited their friends over for a late lunch/early dinner scenario. The gang hadn’t seen much of one another since the arrival of the twins, but that wasn’t the only reason. Danny had way too many advocacy projects, Laferry Industries was going through some marketing changes, Carmilla had taken on more thesis duties with the University while Mel, Kirsch and Laura had their hands tied with more news stories than they usually had. They were slowly adjusting to adulting and it was a strange time. Today, however, everyone was pretty much free and decided to hang out without hesitation.

The twins were in school and asked Carmilla not to pick them up because they wanted to hang with friends. Carmilla quickly conceded with them despite Laura’s protests. As per usual, the resident Tiny Gay Journalist was taking everything over the top. Laura was absolutely not over Levy being kidnapped even though everyone seemed to be unphased at the memory. Now, a child being kidnapped was definitely something to stress over but the vampire was convinced that it was a one-time-thing because it was an ill-conceived plan constructed by her scorned sibling. Carmilla, much to Laura’s dismay, just waved Laura’s protests off and sent the kids to school telling them to stick together and reminded them to keep their phones above 50% battery. With a huff, Laura proceeded to ignore her partner until she needed help with lunch preparations.

Laura and Carmilla were having some trouble with their “parenting” styles and it was very prominent whenever it came to letting the twins do anything. Laura preferred set schedules to work with, coupled with supervision, whereas Carmilla could easily pull the “you’re acting like your father” card, but decided against it for fear of being sent to the couch.

Anyway, this problem was starting to flare into full force at LaF’s activity proposal for Halloween.

“Please?” the short-haired ginger pleaded, hands folded, looking up at their best friend with hopeful eyes. Laura appeared genuinely offended at the proposal with a hand over her heart.

 _Such a mom_ , was the thought in everyone’s brain.

“Absolutely not!” the journalist cried, putting her juice down on the table. Everyone in the room, aside from Perry, groaned and tossed their heads back.

“Oh, come on, Frosh! Please?”

“I said no, LaF!” Laura argued, “One of them went frickin’ missing, a few weeks ago! How do you people keep forgetting about that?!” Laura was psyching herself up again and Perry walked over, rubbing her back in support. The one true mother figure working her magic, settling the journalist a little bit. Perry turned to LaF once Laura fell into a comfortable silence.

“Sweetie, if Laura says ‘no’ then we have to abide by that!” Perry told LaF before she turned back to Laura, offering an apology on her…business partner’s behalf. “Sorry to have this one disturb your peace by suggesting such a…uh-a ludicrously unsafe activity.” Laura was about to say something before Carmilla piped up.

“I think taking the girls ghost hunting would be fun.”

“CARM!”

“What?” the vampire inquired, turning to face her girlfriend, “We used to do it like every month. Sometimes, once a week. What’s the harm?” Laura rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, but that was before the twins came along!”

“We can still do it, if we plan it well.” The vampire insisted. Laura teared herself away from Perry’s hold and marched up to the vampire.

“That’s not the point I’m trying to get across!” she cried, staring directly into Carmilla’s eyes. Their stare-off was broken by LaF.

“Are we still talking about ghost hunting?”

“LAF!” Laura chastised while Carmilla just laughed.

“What?!” they said, shrugging their shoulders nonchalantly, “It was an honest question!” once more laughter died down, LaFontaine took another shot at convincing Laura to agree. “Frosh, the girls’ birthday falls on November 18th, which happens to be Occult Day! They were literally born for this! And It’s the perfect opportunity to get them involved in the family business!”

“Since when did we decided that your supernatural investigations constituted as a family business?!” the journalist asked. Kirsch decided to get in on the conversation because he really did miss his chick – LADY friends.

“I think we should totally let the little bros decide – OW!”

“Wait, that was actually a good idea.” Mel said, right after slapping Kirsch upside his head. “Sorry, meat-brain.” Kirsch simply offered a thumbs-up, while cradling his ear with his other hand. Beside him, Danny nodded thinking that his idea was also pretty reasonable.

“Yeah, Laur. The girls are what? Turning 15? Let them tell us.” Surprisingly, Carmilla really liked what their friends were saying, especially because it was helping her position.

“For once, I agree with Pippy Long Legs.” Carmilla told Laura, “I, for one, think that they can totally handle it.” Laura grunted but Carmilla continued, wrapping her arm around her grumpy little cupcake. “Cutie, the twins – Cohen and Levy – are responsible young women, who I trust with my entire undead life.” Before Carmilla could proceed with her closing statement, Cohen burst through the front door in a panic, startling the adults a little bit.

“CARM! LAURIE!” the spectacled blonde shouted, running towards them while completely leaving the front door open. “THEY ARE SELLING THESE THINGS CALLED ‘CANDWICHES’ IN THE CAFETERIA! YOU’RE GONNA FLIP! IT’S. A. CANNED. SANDWICH.”

Laura chose now to glare at Carmilla. The vampire just coughed and straightened her posture.

“I stand by my position.” Carm said, “She’s clearly into innovative thinking.”

“Sweetie, I don’t think canned sandwiches are going to be anything but terrible for your arteries.” Perry said, taking the ‘Candwich’ can from Cohen and reading the label.

“Speak for yourself.” The tween said, swiping the can back and aggressively opening it. She threw her head back and chugged the first bit of it. She winced, “EW. It’s chunky.” However, she continued to drink it anyway. Mel, Danny, Carmilla, LaF and Kirsch looked on in complete awe.

“America, she’s a warrior.” Was Mel’s simple comment.  Laura shook her head and took Cohen’s bag from her. She began to unpack all of Cohen’s things, placing her lunch containers in the sink and throwing out candy wrappers that were half-heartedly tossed in. Carmilla just watched the domestic ritual Laura fell into. The raven-haired woman thought it was adorable that even without an active mother figure, Laura seemed to grasp ‘mom things’ pretty well.

“Where’s your sister?” Laura asked, once her cleaning job was finished.

“Right here.” Levy said, entering the apartment. She quickly closed the door before shucking off her shoes and joining the gang. “Hey everyone!” she greeted, making her way over to Laura. The usual pleasantries were exchanged as Laura performed the same task but with levy’s belongings. The journalist silently thanked the universe for Levy’s organizational habits which Cohen seemed to not have.

Carmilla decided it was her turn to step in and help. She quickly busied herself with making the girls a plate of food to enjoy. All the adults had finished their shares and the girls must have been hungry after their extracurriculars. Lunch/dinner was relatively simple; some sliced bread from the French bakery down the street, an Austrian goulash that Carmilla had remembered, roasted potatoes and other steamed veggies. Levy was all too happy with the assortment of food and dove right in. Cohen politely asked for less considering she still had to finish her weird canned snack. Carmilla rolled her eyes, but obeyed and gave Cohen a little less than what she tossed onto Levy’s plate. Just as Carmilla had done before, Laura was in awe at the vampire and secretly swooned over how gentle and caring she was for the twins. She felt a little guilty at not trusting Carm’s opinions earlier. Once the girls were seated in the living room, along with everyone else, LaFontaine decided to take on Kirsch’s idea and ask for the girls’ opinion on their Halloween plans.

“So, Levy and Cohen, Halloween’s a comin’.” They said, as the girls were happily munching on their food. “You guys up for something epic?!” the twins halted their chewing to look at one another and nodded at LaF. The ginger was pleased with this. “You. Us. One of the most haunted locations in the nation! You in?” smiles laced their faces and they nodded happily.

“I’m game.” Levy said, smearing goulash onto her bread and shoving it in her mouth. Beside her, Cohen pumped her fist into the air.

“Oh yeah! We are ready for anything! We are THE HOLLIS-KARNSTEINS!” the short-haired blonde cried right before chugging some more of her ‘Candwich’. Once again, she winces and coughs a little as the mysterious liquid made its way down her esophagus. “God, that’s weird.” Regardless, she continued to drink it anyway. Everyone stared again, completely amazed.

“Astounding.” Mel said.

“I don’t know about this…” Laura said, scratching the back of her neck. Carmilla carefully took Laura’s hand away from her neck and kissed her knuckles. With a blush, Laura stepped further into her girlfriend’s arms and sighed.

“The kids are gonna be fine.” the vampire insisted, kissing the journalist’s forehead. “We’re all going together, anyway.” Laura smiled up and Carmilla and was suddenly shocked at strong arms coming around the both of them.

“Yeah, Little Nerd! It’s gonna be like the good ol’ days!” Kirsch said happily, right before shouting “group-hug!” all the adults pooled together in an awkward huddle while the twins just smiled.

Cohen and Levy looked at one another.

“I can’t wait for Halloween.” Levy said, with excitement in her eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope y'all enjoyed it!


End file.
